Mirandy One Shots
by Libstar
Summary: So whenever I see one if those 'send me a number and a pairing and I'll right a fic' things on Tumblr I save them for times I have writers block or need something to keep me occupied. I figured rather than having the sitting doing nothing I might as well post them here. All of them will stand alone but obviously they will all be Mirandy. Unusual disclaimers apply.
1. Chapter 1

"You need to wake up because I can't do this without you."

* * *

Miranda couldn't rest, couldn't relax. Everyone was telling her to get some sleep but what none of them seemed to understand was that, asleep or awake, her minds eye was tormenting her with the events of the day. When it had all happened she hadn't been there, she had been sat in an insipid board meeting, but that didn't stop her imagination providing images of the way it could have been, the worst it could have been. Twisting slightly in the uncomfortable hospital chair she watched her daughters sleeping, curled around each other like they always did when upset. Cassidy had a deep bruise across her temple and cheek, her left arm in plaster and bruising all down her body where she had taken some of the impact of the speeding car, Caroline on the other hand had gotten off extremely lightly, a few minor cuts and scrapes and badly shaken from what she had witnessed but thankfully no lasting damage, physical at least. She was pleased they were sleeping, it had been a long day and the days to come would no doubt be taxing too, they needed their rest.

Movement on the other side of the room drew her attention and slowly she made her way to her feet, stiff from sitting in the same position for so long. Making her way to the twin cots set up on the other side of the bed she was pleased to see only one of the babies awake. Scooping him up, she refused to decide on names until Andrea was awake and had met them both, she perched on the edge of her wife's bed, careful not to catch any of the wires or machines, rather than moving back to her chair.

"Hello there little man," she whispered, trying to ignore that her voice was so thick, so obviously still full of the tears she hadn't let herself cry, she needed to be strong, for Andrea, for the girls, for the babies. A sob caught in her throat as she cast her eyes over her wife, her face was badly bruised, her hair matted with dried blood from her head injury, both of her forearms were heavily bruised, Miranda thought from where she had thrown them protectively around her bump when the air bag deployed and she looked pale under all of the bruising, paler than Miranda had ever seen her. The older woman couldn't bare to thing about what the rest of her looked like. They had done an emergency cesarean and then moved on to fix the internal damage, they had had to wire her hip back together and once the swelling went down her ankle would need to go into plaster, she hadn't woken up since her surgery and although, really, she knew it was ok, that Andrea's body was giving itself a little extra time to heal, she wouldn't be happy until she saw those chocolate brown eyes open.

A cry from the cot drew her attention away from her wife to where their baby girl was no awake and on the verge of screaming, she'd worked her arms free of her blankets and her little fists were flailing in the air.

"Oh I know, I know my darling." She murmured putting her hands on the girls chest, heart breaking at the fact that she couldn't pick her up without putting down her crying brother. She knew from having the girls that in a month or so she would be able to pick them both up together but when they were this small she couldn't do it without having someone hand her the second baby. She could feel helpless tears pricking at her eyes as the volume increased from both infants. As the little girl got louder she put down her brother and scooped her up, whispering soothing words to her and kissing her forehead lightly while she tried as best she could to rock their little boys crib with her foot, pleased when it seemed to work and both of her babies began to quiet down, she was amazed that neither Caroline or Cassidy stirred though it was for the best, they needed to sleep and she didn't want them to see her looking so helpless.

She changed both babies efficiently, laying them in the same crib, hoping that having their twin close would soothe then back to sleep. Sitting back down on the edge of Andrea's bed she dropped her head into her hands and allowed herself to cry properly for the first time all day, hot, heavy tears that no doubt took what remained of her make up with them, she must look like hell but she couldn't bring herself to care.

This wasn't how all of this was supposed to happen. They'd had plans for when Andrea went into labour, Miranda was supposed to be with her, helping her through it, there to see their little miracles born. It never should have been so violent, so sudden, Andrea never should have been driving that car, not three weeks before her due date and especially not when Miranda had been the one to promise the girls the afternoon treat, if only they had waited, if only Irv wasn't such a serial time waster.

One of the bundles in the cot began to fuss and she allowed another sob to escape, she couldn't do this on her own, she never wanted to do this on her own and she couldn't deal with the very real fear that Andrea might not wake up or that if she did they would discover that their was more to her head injury than they first thought. Leaning over the sleeping woman, careful not to jostle anything, she pressed a kiss to the brunette a forehead and allowed the tears to fall into her wife's face.

"You need to wake up sweetheart." She whispered, kissing the skin beneath her lips again, "you have two perfect babies who can't wait to meet you darling, everyone is ok we just need you to wake up. I can't do this on my own."

* * *

Miranda woke with a start when a wail started up across the room. Getting to her feet as quickly as she could half asleep, half exhausted and stiff all over she made her way to the cot and scooped the little girl up into her arms, she was going to be a terror like her mother and her sisters, Miranda could tell already.

"I know I know angel," she soothed, bouncing the little bundle lightly while setting about warming one of the bottles of formula the hospital had provided to keep them going through the night, "I want her to wake up too. She's going to love you and your brother so much you know, she really is." She had run out of tears hours ago but could still feel her eyes trying to gather some moisture to expel. The girls' father had picked them up a few hours ago when she insisted that they needed to get some proper rest in a proper bed and promised they could visit again in the morning, but despite Richard's insistence that she needed to get some rest too she had refused to leave her wife and their babies al be for a single minute. Richard had brought coffee and food, knowing her well enough to know that she wouldn't leave no matter how much he suggested otherwise, the coffee she had drank but the food remained untouched, she just couldn't bring herself to eat despite knowing she really needed to.

"Miranda." If she hadn't been holding such precious cargo Miranda knew she would have dropped the bundle in her arms in shock as she turned where she stood to find Andrea, propped up slightly in the bed, smiling at her.

"Darling." Miranda exhaled heavily, moving over to the side of her wife's bed on auto pilot, carefully lowering herself down onto the edge, "do I need to get the doctor?"

"No they've been in," Andrea shifted slightly and winced, "I didn't want to wake you, the nurse said you haven't been home."

"I couldn't leave you, any of you," Miranda said gently, looking between her wife, the bundle in her arms and the cot in the corner, "I didn't know if..." She trailed off and fixed her wife with wet eyes, "I'm so glad you're awake."

"Looks like someone has realised you aren't paying them enough attention." Andrea said when the baby in Miranda's arms began to fuss again, "are they both ok? Are the girls ok?"

"Everyone is fine darling. How are you feeling?"

"Like I was hit by a truck," Andrea chuckled, sobering when she saw her wife's face fall, "sorry. Not funny." Miranda simply shifted the baby into one arm so she could grab Andrea's hand, squeezing it tightly,

"Never, ever do that to me again Andrea Priestly, do you hear me!"

"I promise." Andrea said sombrely, "I promise. I'm not going anywhere." Andrea didn't think she had seen that look on her wife's face before, it was terror pure and simple and she hated herself for being the reason it was there. She felt awful and she had a feeling that she would feel worse as the pain medication wore off, she could feel sleep pulling at her again but she fought it, wanting to spend the time reassuring Miranda that everything was ok, "are you going to introduce me to our babies?"

"Of course," Miranda's face changed immediately, a smile gracing her features as she moved to her feet so she could roll the cot closer to the bed on Andrea's right side, "is there room up there for me?"

"Always," And she wasn't lying, the bed was intact huge and could have easily have fit them both, plus the twins if she wasn't so battered and bruised, "the doctor says I'm not allowed to hold them yet," she admitted quietly and Miranda's heart clenched painfully, "it's going to take a few days."

"That's ok we can still make sure you get some contact," Miranda slid gently onto the bed and manoeuvred the little girl so that Andrea could see her face, "this is our daughter."

"Hello little one," Miranda smiled as Andrea reached over to gently stroke the girls cheek, "aren't you just the most perfect little thing." "She takes after her sisters in the screaming department," Miranda chuckled, tilting her body so Andrea could get a closer look, "And she's healthy?"

"Perfectly, they both are. Now let me put her down and warm up another bottle and you can meet our son, he's much more placid than his sister but I can tell he's going to get impatient to be fed soon."

* * *

Miranda pushed her way into the townhouse and dropped her bags at the bottom of the stairs while she hung up her coat and removed her shoes. It had been a long day, her first back at the office for a full day since Andrea and the girls accident and the twins birthday. It had been a long few months, it had been weeks before Andrea had been well enough to leave the hospital and Miranda had been torn between being at home with her children and staying by her wife's side. Once they had gotten home it hadn't gotten much easier but Andrea had slowly but surely begun to heal and get around by herself. She had insisted that Miranda go back to work properly rather than working from the town house, knowing that her wife was missing being in the thick of it. Miranda had been wishing since she had set foot in the office that she had ignored her wife completely. She had forgotten how difficult it had been to return to work after the girls were born and adding to that the fact she still worried about Andrea there was absolutely nothing at Runway that could keep her focus for longer than five minutes.

Picking up her bags again she made straight for upstairs. She had left early and knew the girls wouldn't be home yet and it was too quiet downstairs for Andrea to be down there. She wasn't surprised to find her wife in the nursery with the babies, she had the play mat spread out on the floor and Thomas was lying beside her while she cradled Kathryn against her chest. Miranda paused in the door way to watch for a moment unable to control her smile, Andrea was such a perfect mother and if Miranda had thought she had glowed during pregnancy she didn't know how to describe her wife now.

"Do we think you mom should join us?" Andrea said, never taking her eyes away from Kathryn's face, "because we've missed her haven't we?"

"Give me one second to change my darlings, then I'm all yours," slipping along to the bedroom she quickly stripped out of her suit and into a pair of leggings and a soft jumper before returning to the nursery. Scooping Thomas up off the mat she kissed his forehead and lowered herself down beside her wife, kissing Kathryn's head before kissing Andrea softly,

"hello sweetheart," "Hey," Andrea shuffled slightly so she was lying closer to the other woman "we missed you,"

"And I missed you all too," maybe it was finally time to hand the magazine fully over to Nigel, if the last few months had taught her anything it was that you never knew what was going to happen and she wanted to spend more time with her family. In that moment she decided it was time.


	2. Hey I'm with you ok? Always

So I've been quiet recently, mostly because I've been suffering from a massive case of writers block and I've gotten myself into a place where I have two pretty long fics on the go at once and it is stressing me out.

This came out tonight in under an hour. It hasn't been beta'd so I apologise for any mistakes. I'll try and get something written for Bruised or Not What it Seems this week. But j can't promise anything. Just know that I am trying and the fact I continue to get favs and follows despite the fact I haven't updated for weeks gives me hope.

You guys are honestly amazing and I wouldn't get anything down if it wasn't for the support.

* * *

Hey, I'm with you, okay? Always

Miranda woke with a start, the blurred remnants of her dream burning behind her eyes. Her heart was racing, her palms were damp and her breathing ragged. Andrea gone. Andrea walking away. Andrea leaving her. The images assaulted her over and over. Her chest tightening as she fought to regain control over her body and her racing mind.

She tried to remember what her therapist told her, about how she shouldn't fight against the panic, about how no matter what it felt like, she couldn't loose consciousness no matter how close she felt she was to blacking out. She tried to take the slow, deep breaths she knew she should, but between her racing heart and the tears which drenched her face, it felt impossible.

She had thought she was past this. For months, every night she woke at least once, often multiple times, in varying States of panic and she spent her days heavily medicated but still teetering on the edge of panic. But recently, at least for the last week or so, it has been better, to the point that she had actually believed that she was going to be ok. How foolish. She had been living with the anxiety long enough to know that it never truly went away, that it could subside for weeks, months, years even, but all it took was a trigger and she was thrown back into it again and she had to identify the trigger and neutralise it before she could begin to tackle the panic attacks.

A cool hand in her back startled her and she flinched away, not wanting to be touched, wanting to curl in on herself and allow herself to be swept away.

"Hey." The hand didn't return but she was aware of a presence behind her, "Miranda you're ok."

"I'm not." She sobbed, curling around her knees and rocking slightly, "Andrea left, she's not coming back."

"No Miranda, I'm here. Sweetheart I'm right here." The hand returned and she didn't have the energy to resist it. The voice behind her sounded so familiar, so like home, that she could feel her body responding to it, beginning to calm, "shhh you're ok. I've got you."

She felt the fog recede as her chest loosened, her breathes coming more evenly, though they were still shallow and her head was still spinning. The vague feeling of the body behind her became more solid, more grounding, and she allowed herself to be pulled back against it.

"Try and breath with me. Nice and slow. That's right." She voice was right by her ear, a hand pressed lightly against her diaphragm. She wasn't sure how long it took, it varied from panic attack to panic attack, but eventually the pressure eased and she collapsed back, exhausted, into the body behind her. A hand continued to run soothingly through her hair and she twisted so that her ear was pressed against her chest, the heartbeat strong and steady in her ear.

"I'm sorry." Her voice was husky and raw and it still shook with the emotion of the last several minutes.

"Hey," a gentle finger beneath her chin angled her face so that she was looking up into deep brown eyes. "I'm with you, okay?" The younger woman leant down and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. Pulling them back down into bed and pulling the cover back over them both. She allowed herself to be manoeuvred so she was curled against Andrea's body, her head tucked into her neck. The final word before she fell back into an exhausted sleep proving enough to keep the dreams at bay at least for the night. "Always."


	3. I'm Pregnant

I'm pregnant

Andrea fussed around the dinning room, straightening the already perfectly placed cutlery and picking up the glasses to wipe of flecks of invisible dust. She had tried to sit down and wait patiently but she'd only managed five minutes before she had practically vibrated herself out of the chair with her nervous energy.

Technically it wasn't her fault she was in such a state, or at least that was what she was telling herself, the girls had left for their fathers two hours ago, up until which point they had been acting as a grand distraction, and Miranda was late, nearly three hours late. To give her her credit Miranda had called to let them know that she was running behind, but even with the chance of delays Andrea had expected her home in time to see the girls off, a time which had far passed.

Moving through to the kitchen she rechecked all of the dishes which had been left in the oven to keep warm, if she was lucky Miranda would get home before everything was completely ruined, though she was quickly running out of time for that to be the case. She knew it wasn't good for her to be getting so worked up so rather than fussing around downstairs she headed up to hers and Miranda's shared study where she put on a compilation of relaxing classics and picked up her book from where she had abandoned it the previous night. And relax.

Miranda pushed her way through the door with a sigh, kicking off her shoes and shrugging out of her jacket, it had been a long day, too long, and she was sorely aware that she had missed the chance to say goodbye to her daughters and let down Andrea too.

The hall was dark but for the light seeping from the kitchen so she followed the light, surprised to find the room empty, it was Andrea who was always so insistent that lights be switched off when you left the room. The room did however smell divine and Miranda moved to peer in the oven where she found her favourite meal keeping warm. Pulling it out to get a better look she sighed, over done, beyond saving. Switching off the oven she caught sight of the light coming from the dining room, leaning against the door frame she took in the beautifully set table, the vase of fresh flowers, the candles waiting to be lit and the bottle of champagne chilling in the ice bucket and tried to work out what she had forgotten this time. She really was awful when it came to remembering dates but she couldn't for the life of her remember what she had missed this time, she knew it wasn't her birthday and it couldn't be Andrea's either since that had been the previous month. It couldn't be their anniversary either could it? That was November she may not be able to pinpoint the exact date off the top of her head but she knew it was still too early in the year to be that.

Turning of the lights she headed further into the house to find her wife, following the sound of gentle music up to the second floor where she found light spilling from the study. She found Andrea there, curled up in the corner of the sofa sleeping peacefully, her book abandoned on her lap. Miranda took a moment to take her in, sitting on the arm of the chair beside her and brushing the hair out of her face.

"Andrea," she said gently, "darling I'm home." The younger woman stirred and stretched before slowly opening her eyes, a smile lighting up her face when she caught sight of her wife.

"Hi" she said quietly, leaning into the hand in her cheek, her own hand seeking out contact. "What time is it?"

"Quite late I'm afraid," Miranda murmured, pressing a kiss to the top of the woman's head as she pulled her too her, "I seem to have ruined a surprise?"

"Oh." Andrea said, remembering the nervous energy of earlier, "oh. Dinner."

"I took the liberty of switching the oven off. I'm afraid my lateness means it is quite ruined. I also feel awful because I can't seem to work out what it is we are celebrating."

"Don't worry, you haven't forgotten anything," Andrea smiled and pulled Miranda into her lap, pressing a kiss to her cheek, allowing the older woman's presence to keep the nervousness at bay, "but I do have some news,"

"Oh?" Miranda fixed her with a raised eyebrow, "do move at a glacial pace Andrea you know how that thrills me."

"Haha!" Eyes twinkling Andrea kissed away the mock scowl on Miranda's face and brushed her fingers through the stubborn lock of hair that was constantly flopping into her eyes, "now it's a secret, you aren't allowed to tell anyone." She said pressing her forehead against her wife's, "not a soul, not even the dog,"

"Andrea."

"Miranda." She chuckled in mock seriousness bumping her nose against her wife and grinning at her, "you're going to have to be a lot nicer to me, no more grumpy Mira."

"I have no idea what you are talking about darling," Miranda sniffed, "now are you going to tell me what's going on?"

"You'll have to go back downstairs, have a look at your place at the dining table." With a huff Miranda pushed herself up and headed for the door, standing and stretching Andrea followed at a distance, stopping in the doorway of the dining room and simply watching. She knew the moment Miranda spotted the envelope and gave her unspoken question an encouraging nod. The look that overcame the older woman's face when she pulled out the small photograph was priceless, equal parts confusion, joy and hope.

"Andrea?"

"I'm pregnant miranda," she murmured, a smile almost splitting her face in half as she closed the space between them, "it worked. We're having a baby." Miranda pulled her into a strong embrace but not before Andrea spotted the tears beginning to track down her cheeks. It had been a long road with so many problems that Andrea had almost convinced herself that it was just never going to happen. After the last time she hadn't dared breath a word of her news to anyone. Not even Miranda, not until she had passed the first trimester and things were looking positive. It had been hard, she'd woken up every day terrified that something was going to happen, it was a miracle Miranda hadn't noticed though she had spent a large chunk of the last three months traveling for fashion week and they had both been busy.

"How long?" Miranda asked into her neck, her arms tightening around her wife's waist

"13 weeks."

"And everything is ok?"

"The doctor says everything looks fine, it's a healthy baby. I have to go in every two weeks for a check up because of the last time. But other than that everything should progress as normal."

"We're having a baby," the wonder in Miranda's voice only served to widen the smile on Andrea's face and she forced the other woman's head from its resting place on her chest so they were looking at each other.

"We are." She grinned, taking the other woman's face in her hands and kissing her deeply "I love you Miranda Priestly."

"Oh Andrea," Miranda gave her as close to a grin as she had ever seen and pressed a hand to her still flat abdomen. "I love you too. Both of you."


	4. Exhausted Parents Kiss

Catagory is...Exhausted parents kiss.

Miranda dropped herself onto the edge of the bed with a sigh, just in time for her alarm to start going off on the nightstand. With another sigh she rubbed her hand over her eyes before reaching out to turn it off, if only she had looked over The Book the previous night she could have gotten back into bed for another hour but spending time with her family had been so much more appealing and as always she prioritised her time with them over Runway.

"Hey," she felt the bed move behind her and then a warm body was curling around her back, strong arms wrapping around her stomach, "Where've you been?"

"Nathan got sick, he's only just gone back to sleep." Miranda twisted where she sat slightly to brush her hand over her wifes hair, "He's had some tylanol and he'll probably sleep a couple of hours."

"Why didn't you wake me?" Andrea pushed herself up in bed and pulled Miranda's body to her, kissing her cheek, "I could have sorted him while you got some sleep."

"You need as much sleep as you can get darling," As if to illustrate the point a wale pierced through the quiet, lighting up the baby monitor on Andrea's side of the bed, "See. You go and see to her while I shower then I'll make breakfast."

"Don't worry about breakfast, I know you have to look over The Book this morning. Cara will be here in an hour and we can eat with the girls." Andrea kissed her wife's cheek again before pushing herself out of bed and wandering off to the nursery. Miranda sat for a few moments longer and listened to her wife coo at their daughter, smiling before she headed for the shower hoping that if she kept the water on the cool side it might just wake her up.

Miranda was pleased that her staff would never dare question her work ethic of the length of her work day. It seemed she was getting far too old for sleepless nights and early mornings and by lunch time she was seriously flagging and by the time her one o'clock meeting was over she could barely keep her eyes open and so decided to call it a day.

In the car home she answered her the final emails in her inbox before shutting the device off altogether and burrying it in the bottom of her bag. Resting her head back against the seat she closed her eyes and sighed. Going home early didn't mean she would get any more sleep she knew, the pull of spending time with her family would prove too much. It had been a month since she had returned to work after the birth of Catherine and there hadn't been a day that went by that she hadn't wondered why she was still doing it. Andrea had been so ill after Catherine was born and their daughter so tiny. Catherine was making up for it and was developing the way she should be but Andrea still hadn't bounced back and Miranda hated that she wasn't around to help during the day, hated that even at night she brought work home with her.

Arriving home she followed the sound of the TV to the entertainment room, the picture that greeted her enough to make herstart writing her resignation in her head. Nathan was curled on the sofa, his head pressed into Andrea's thigh, thumb in his mouth and his blanky clutched tightly in his other hand, Andrea had Catherine cradled in one arm as she fed her, her other hand stroking over Nathan's sandy hair and the twins were sprawled on the floor with their homework. Her perfect family were more than worth the exhaustion. Andrea looked up when her shoes hit the floor and her face lit up in a beautiful if exhausted smile.

"Hey," the grin widened as Miranda moved towards her, "You're home early."

"I wasn't getting any work done." she said, stifling a yawn with the back of her hand before she bent to scoop up her son and reposition him on her knee,

"You really should have woken me up to deal with thsi guy," Andrea chastised gently, "I could have caught up on the sleep while they were down for their nap and you wouldn't have had to leave the office early."

"Well I didn't." Miranda smirked, "And I can call Roy and ask him to take me back to the office if you'd rather?"

"Oh no. No, you can stay," Andrea stifled her own yawn and rested her head on her wife's shoulder "Worth it though, isn't it?"

"Oh yes," Miranda murmured, tilting Andrea's face gently up to her own and pressing a long, lazy kiss to her mouth. All of the long days, sleepless night nd early mornings were all made perfectly acceptable, totally worth it when she sat down at the end of the day with this wonderful woman and the life they had built together.


	5. We can never be together kiss

We can never be together kiss

So this started out as a pretty short one shot but it was horribly angsty and after leaving it to sit for a while before I typed it up and decided that I needed to do something to take the edge off. So the first small part was inspired by the prompt 'we can never be together kiss' and also by the discovery of 'Dry your eyes mate' by The Streets on my iPod and the rest is what happened when I came back to it in a better mood and wanted to fix things for our favourite ladies.

So this comes with an angst warning, but I promise it gets better in the end.

* * *

Andrea stepped towards Miranda and reached out to tilt the other woman's chin so that their eyes met. Her heart was pounding in her ears, her breaths were shallow and she was fighting hard against the tears that were burning in her eyes. When her eyes met the older woman's what was left of her heart fell straight out of her chest. She had expected to come eye to eye with the Editor in Chief but what met her was Miranda, the woman who she had spent the last several months coming to know and love.

As her assistant, Andrea had learned to read Miranda from the slightest gesture or the slightest change in her eyes and in that moment she wished that she had never been so good at her job. The age old saying applied to Miranda in spades, her eyes were very much the windows to her soul and they were reflecting back everything that Andrea was feeling.

"Miranda..." she cursed that her voice sounded so weak, that she didn't know what else she could say, Miranda had heard all of her arguments, knew all of the reasons why Andrea thought this thing between them _could_ work and already had her own set of counter arguments ready and waiting. The twins, the press, the divorce, both of their jobs and the baby were Miranda's well practiced defences and Andrea was at a loss as to how to counter them.

She felt hands grip hers where it rested against the older woman's skin and tried her hardest not to let the touch soothe her. Miranda squeezed the hand in hers lightly before slowly moving it away from her body, bringing it to rest on Andrea's slightly rounded stomach. Their eyes never left each other and the obvious tears building in the older woman's eyes were almost her undoing. She watched Miranda take a slow, deep breath, a sad smile tipping the corners of her mouth ever so slightly. Her eyes slid closed when Miranda's lips met hers and her hand came to rest on the side of her bump and didn't open until she heard the door click closed, the 'I love you' that Miranda had murmured against her lips hanging in the air, her hand print permanently branded into her skin.

She'd run out of tears hours ago, or at least she thought she had. Allowing her knees to buckle beneath her she hit the floor, the tears coming hot and fast. She should have known from the beginning that this relationship was doomed to fail. The minute it had stopped being just about the sex and feelings had become involved she should have put a stop to it but she had been so surprised that Miranda actually returned her feelings that she had let it continue and now it had broken them both. It was like Miranda said. If they had met at a different time in either of their lives then maybe they could have made it work but as it was Miranda felt there was too much stacked against them.

Miranda Priestly loved her, she knew that much to be true, she had looked into the other woman's eyes when she had said it, felt the way she would stroke her hair, her face, her growing stomach when she thought she was asleep. It was something that was hard to fake, that kind of reverence, and Andrea refused to believe that Miranda would. She loved Miranda too, more fiercely than she had ever thought it possible to love another human being until she had discovered that she was pregnant and she realised that she had enough of that love for two. She loved the older woman despite all of the reasons why she shouldn't and she knew that this was it for her, they couldn't be together but she would cherish the memories of the time they had spent together and she knew in her heart that she would never stop loving her.

When Andrea had appeared at a charity gala five months previously Miranda hadn't expected to speak to the other woman never mind that they would end the night violently fucking in the back of the Towncar or that it would become what it had. It had been a month of rough and ready sex in executive bathrooms, empty offices and budget hotel rooms and then Andrea had found out she was pregnant. With no father on the scene and her friends and parents gone along with him Miranda had found herself in the strange position of being the younger woman's only friend. So after that, they didn't just fuck anymore, they still had sex of course but it came after a shared dinner, shared conversation and with this new side of their relationship came feelings. Feelings which she had been ignoring since the younger woman's transformation at Nigel's hand, which she had managed to continue to ignore, content to have what she could get from the girl and which she was sure would never be returned until Andrea had murmured a quiet 'I love you' to a 'sleeping' Miranda before slipping away to her own apartment one night.

With the realisation of mutual love came another much worse, what they shared had to end. Neither of them were stable enough in their jobs to survive the media storm that would follow a discovery that Miranda Priestly was shacked up with her ex assistant who also happened to be twenty years younger than her and pregnant and it would get out eventually, it was a miracle really that they hadn't been discovered already. Then there were the children, her own twins and Andrea's unborn little girl, it wasn't fair to subject them to that kind of scrutiny. Then there was Miranda's number one reason. Andrea. The brunette deserved so much better than to be treated like a dirty little secret, so much better than Miranda, so much better than to be dragged through the press. Miranda had had years to come to terms with what the press said about her but Andrea, although tougher than she had been when she had first joined the Runway team, Miranda knew would loose part of herself with every harsh word that was printed until there was nothing left.

Sliding into the back of the towncar she weighed up her options, if she went home the girls would know imediatley that there was something going on, if she went to the office she ran the risk of coming across someone, probably Nigel, working late and he would take one look at her and know exactly what had happened and try and make her talk, but she couldn't talk about it, not yet.

"Roy, drive around until I tell you I'm ready to go home." She said before putting up the privacy screen and dropping her head back onto the head rest, the first hot tear breaking free and sliding down her cheek and into her hair. Roy knew everything and would no doubt know exactly what had happened, but unlike Nigel her would never dare to ask questions, he would simply do his job and pretend that he knew nothing like he had been doing for years. She felt safe with Roy, almost as safe as she felt with Andrea and so she didn't stifle the sobs, didn't try and stem the tears, for a change she allowed herself to feel everything and let herself drown in it.

* * *

5 Years Later

Andrea wandered the paths of Central Park, her daughter hanging on her arm as she chattered about everything and nothing while they looked for a place to set down their picnic. It had been a long, busy few weeks which had meant that her daughter had spent more time with sitters than Andrea would have liked but it was the first day of her holiday and Andrea was going to spend every minute of the next week making up for it.

"Here mommy." A tug at her arm pulled her to a halt and she smiled as she followed her daughters pointed finger to a tree which was close enough to the swings that the girl would be able to go and play but not so close that it was crowded.

"Ok honey, come on then."

"Puppy!" Andrea turned from unpacking the basket to watch a small streak of fur tearing towards them, stopping only when it reached humans, jumping and yipping around them. She had just managed to grab a hold of the energetic bundle to check for a collar and an ID when an all too familiar voice stopped her dead in her tracks.

"Charles!" the puppy stopped its fussing, gave one final yip and then ran back to his master, Andrea didn't dare look up from her hands, "I'm sorry about that, it's his first time outside of the house and he's a little over excited."

"He's cool mommy. Can we get a puppy?" Miranda froze as she took in the little girl, with her dark hair and wide brown eyes. When Andrea had told her that she was pregnant, that it was going to be a little girl, this was exactly what she had imagined. It wasn't the first time she had come across a little girl who stopped her in her tracks or a brunette who made her pause, and each time it was like a punch in the solar plexus that would take her days to get over.

"Maybe when you are old enough to look after one honey." Andrea reached out and smoothed a hand over her daughters unruly hair, keeping the thick curtain of her own between her and Miranda in the hopes she wouldn't recognise her. Clearly four years had made her forget exactly who Miranda Priestly was.

"Andrea?" Miranda didn't dare to hope, barely dared to breathe as the woman turned her face to her with a sad smile,

"Hi Miranda." It was a miracle really, that this was the first time they had seen each other since that night but Andrea wasn't convinced that she would ever be ready to come face to face with the older woman,

"Mommy?"

"Yes baby."

"Who's this?"

"This is mommy's friend Miranda."

"Hi Miranda," the little girl stood and held out her hand, causing Andrea no small amount of pride, "My name's Miranda too, well my middle name is anyway. Holly Miranda Sachs."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Holly." Miranda shook her hand even as her heart stuttered to a halt before starting again double time, Holly Miranda Sachs, even after she had walked away, Andrea had never forgotten her, had given a part of her to her child, because she knew that it was no coincidence that the girl carried her name as a middle name. She must have missed something between mother and daughter because when she was once again paying attention Holly was lying on her stomach a little way from them, surrounded by coloured pens and pencils, a sketch book in front of her.

"She is truly beautiful Andrea, and polite, you've done an exceptional job of raising her."

"Thank you," Andrea allowed the slight blush to tint her cheeks, she had never gotten used to being complimented by Miranda Priestly, "She's a handful but I wouldn't change her for the world. Speaking of handfuls, how are the twins?"

"Working hard on their senior projects," Miranda couldn't hide the proud smile, "We are going on our first tour of colleges next week."

"Wow. All grown up." Andrea missed the twins almost as much as she missed their mother and she was pleased to hear that they were doing well.

"And how have you been Andrea?" she knew she should end the conversation now and make her escape but being near the brunette again made her realise exactly how much she had missed her and she didn't want the interaction to end.

"Good, busy. Between Holly and work its manic but its all worth it." Andrea smiled, shuffling over so she was leant against the tree and pulling the thermos from the basket by her side, waving it at the other woman, "Care for a coffee?"

"Searing hot?" Miranda smirked even as she chastised herself lightly for her blatant flirting. For her part Andrea couldn't help but hope that maybe this could be their time, that maybe this was the part of their lives where they could make something work because without seeing Miranda she had known that she still loved her, all seeing her had done was confirm that fact.

"Of course." She could never resist that smile and so she sat, pulling Charles into her lap, pleased when he seemed content to curl up and sleep, "How have you been? I heard that Irv finally retired."

"Yes, finally," Miranda accepted the coffee with a pleased hum, savouring the first mouthful, "I've been voted in as the new chair of Elias Clark publications, it's more work but its worth it, even just to make sure that the money is going where it should be."

"Miranda that's amazing." They both froze when Andrea's hand landed on her thigh and squeezed, both more than aware of the electricity that snapped and crackled between them

"Andrea..." her words skittered off as blue eyes met brown and she frowned, even as she knew what was tumbling out of her mouth to be the total truth, this woman had always had been able to make her stop thinking before she spoke, "I've missed you." Andrea sagged in relief, her hand once again squeezing her thigh.

"I've missed you too."

* * *

2 Years Later

Andrea floated slowly to consciousness, aware of whispered voices, also aware that it was still too dark behind her eyelids to be awake. Rolling towards the sound she cracked her eyes open and couldn't suppress the smile at what met her. Holly and Miranda were curled facing each other and whispering quietly, Holly had one of Miranda's hands held in both of hers and was tracing the lines on her palm with practiced finger. Since that first day in the park, when Andrea and Miranda had only dared to hope that they were being given a second chance, the pair had been inseparable. In the early days it had been almost impossible for them to get any time alone because as soon as Holly realised that Miranda was around she was stuck to the other woman like glue and trying to leave her with a sitter so they could have an actual date was almost impossible, mostly because neither of them were able to say no to the girls wide brown eyes and pout. Once Andrea and Holly moved into the townhouse things didn't change much although Holly was now torn between being stuck to Miranda and being the twin's shadow. She would often find the pair sharing whispered secrets together, reading to each other or drawing together. Miranda had proved to be everything she had wanted for her daughter from the minute she had discovered she was pregnant.

"Why are we awake?" she asked quietly, brushing fingers through her daughter's unruly hair, the only thing that remotely reminded her of Nate.

"Someone's excited," Miranda said, eyes twinkling so it was difficult to work out exactly which of them was excited

"And why's that munchkin?"

"Caro and Cass are coming hoomeeee!" Holly squealed, wriggling so she was lying on her back and reaching up to kiss her mom messily on the cheek, "Morning mommy."

"Is it really morning?" Andrea made a show of rubbing her eyes even though she was smiling,

"Only just," Miranda hummed, leaning over and kissing Andrea's cheek before rolling nimbly out of bed, "I'm going to go and make some coffee."

Miranda paused in the doorway, leaning against the frame with a cup of coffee in each hand. Andrea and Holly were sat up in bed now, Holly had found her favourite place, body bracketed by Andrea's legs so she could lean back against her moms body and be encircled by her arms and they were watching something on the iPad.

When she had made a decision to do the right thing and walk away from Miranda she hadn't dared hope that this could be her future. She'd spent the intervening years telling herself that she had done the right thing, that Andrea, wherever she was, was happier, better off, that she had found someone better suited to her, closer to her own age, she was adamant that she could get through the rest of her life just knowing that the younger woman was happy. What a fool she had been.

"Hey," she blinked slowly, bringing her eyes back into focus as Andrea's voice pulled her out of her introspection and she met brown eyes and a wide smile, "Where were you just then?" she asked as Miranda handed her her cup of coffee and perched on the bed beside her,

"Nowhere important," Miranda brushed the bangs out of her face and smiled, "I love you darling."

"Oh I know." Andrea leant forward and brushed a kiss to the older woman's mouth, "I love you too."


	6. Chapter 6

Inspired by one of crazybecat' s Miranday headcannons over on Tumblr and written in the gym to keep my mind off the fact the hill programme on my bike was trying to kill me! All mistakes are my own. Writing has been super tough recently so it feels good to finally get something finished, even if it is just short.

* * *

Andrea was surprised when she pushed her way into the townhouse and found Miranda shrugging out of her coat in the hall. As far as Andrea knew the older woman had been planning on being home early that day and Andrea had expected to find her wife already relaxed and ready to start their weekend.

"Hey" she said gently, abandoning her bag at the bottom of the stairs so she could take of her own coat and hang it beside Miranda's.

"Hello darling," Miranda said quietly, turning to face the brunette and offering a small smile that did nothing to hide the tension which she was carrying in every inch of her body.

"Tough day?" Andrea pulled her into an embrace right there in the hall and stroked her fingers gently through short hair. "I though you would be comfortable and relaxed in the family room by now."

"Last minute disaster in accessories." Miranda sighed starting to systematically let go of the tension of the day, "and I had t bring some work home."

"Don't worry about that right now." Andrea soothed pressing a kiss to the older woman's forehead and taking her hand. "Let's get changed first."

It was a long standing agreement in the Sachs-Priestly household that they would try to leave work at work as much as they could, it had started a little after they got together, when Miranda had decided that it was time she start actually living her life instead of living for the magazine and it had stuck throughout their marriage. Andrea knew that if Miranda had actually given in and brought work home with her then things at the office must have been frantic and she was going to make sure that, at least for an hour, Miranda allowed herself to relax and forget about her day. Gently she led Miranda up the stairs to their bedroom, closing the door quietly behind them before continuing to the bed where she gave her wife a light shove, forcing her to sit on the edge of the mattress.

"Ah ah." She chastised lightly, taking both of Miranda's hands in her own when the older woman began unbuttoning her blazer. "Let me." Slowly and gently she stripped Miranda of her work day, taking time to drop kisses onto uncovered skin and massage over tense muscles. She took extra time with the older woman's feet, slipping them out of the four inch heels that had imprisoned them all day and massaging the tension out of the arches with strong fingers. By the time she was done Miranda was looking more relaxed but Andrea could still see the tension still lingering in her face.

"Why don't you have a shower and I'll sort all of this out?" She suggested, leaning up from her place at Miranda's feet to press a kiss to her wife's lips.

"Thank you darling." Miranda smiled, stroking her fingers through brunette bangs. She didn't know what she had done to deserve this wonderful creature in her life, even after so many years together, but nights like tonight made her cherish her wife even more.

"Do you want me to grab you something to change into once you're done?"

"Please." Miranda nodded, pushing herself to her feet and heading towards the bathroom, "make sure you get yourself comfortable too."

While Miranda showered, something Andrea was pleased she took her time over, Andrea moved their dirty clothes into the 'to dry clean' section of the closet, picked out a pair of leggings and a soft cashmere sweater for Miranda, leaving them on the side in the bathroom where the older woman would find them, before changing into her own loungewear. By the time Miranda emerged from the bathroom, looking comfortable, her hair still damp, Andrea was curled in the middle of the bed, flicking through a magazine.

"Come here," she held out her hand, beaconing her wife over with a smile

"Darling I have work to do."

"Just indulge me for five minutes then you can get on with your work," Andrea pouted, waving her hand in the air between them, "please?"

"Ok, five minutes." Miranda allowed, curling up beside Andrea who had put aside the magazine to pull the older woman into her arms. "How was your day sweetheart?"

"Nothing too exciting." Andrea said, brushing her fingers through her wife's hair as the older woman twisted a lock of her own between her fingers, "Friday's are usually quiet."

It had been more like half an hour by the time Miranda uncurled from where she had become sinfully comfortable and stretched the kinks out of her spine.

"I'll try and get done as quickly as possible." She said, turning to smile at her wife and tucking some hair behind her ear. "Why don't you stay here and relax?"

"No no. I'll come to the study and read. That's if you don't mind?"

"Of course not, come on."

Against her better judgement Miranda allowed herself to be pulled down onto the sofa in the study instead of working at her desk but she found herself unable to resist her wife's smile as she patted the chair between her thighs. Bracketed by Andrea's legs and leant into her body she worked slowly, content to take her time with Andrea close by. It wasn't the way she had planned to begin their weekend free of work and the girls, not by any means, but simply knowing that Andrea was willing to spend the time with her, even if she had to work, reminded her exactly how lucky she was.


	7. Shots Fired

I wrote this last week because I was having persistent dreams about having to evacuate buildings and I needed to cut it off so I could actually get some sleep, this is what happened. Unfortunately its taken me a week to persuade myself that tying it up is a good idea. I always find it easier to write by hand but then I have to type it up and I HATE that part!

* * *

She heard the call come over the Police scanner on the crime desk and took off without really stopping to think

 _Elias Clarke, shots fired, units responding._

She gave no thought to the fact that she was running out of her job in the middle of the day, no thought to the fact that the building which Elias Clarke occupied was 17 floors, only one of which housed Runway magazine and the domain of the woman who held her heart, only knowing that she had to get there, had to make sure Miranda was ok. She took the blocks between The Mirror and Runway at a jog, pleased that her habit of high heels for work had been one of the first she lost after leaving Runway and pleased that she had picked out her converse that morning despite the look of disgust written all over Miranda's face when she had slipped them on.

The site that met her when she rounded the corner to the road that was towered over by the publishing house could only be described as bedlam. The building was cordoned off by a Police barricade, several Police cruisers parked on the side walk. Hundreds of people were milling around outside, they had obviously evacuated the building, and the first of the news station trucks were just pulling up.

Jogging across the road she scanned the crowd for a familiar face, spotting Nigel by the Police line a small part of her relaxed a little, if Nigel was out that meant that the Runway floor had been emptied out and Miranda would be around somewhere , no doubt demanding that she be allowed access to the building immediately and did they have any idea how much money they were costing her with this monumental waste of time.

"Nige?" she called when she got closer and the bald man turned to face her, the small part of her that had relaxed on seeing him immediately tensing up again when she took in his pale, worried face. "Nigel where is she?"

"I've been out at a showing, she was supposed to be with me but editorial lost an interview and she stayed behind to fix it." Nigel rubbed his hand over his bald head and frowned, "whatever is going on in there is going on on the Runway floor but no one will tell me anything."  
Andrea felt sick, what other possible reason could there be for someone running around Runway with a gun than Miranda? The woman had a long list of enemies, snubbed designers, ex-employees, half of the Board of Directors, the list went on and on. Andrea had even joked in the past that one day one of Miranda's assistants would snap and try and poison her with her daily coffee but it had always been just a joke and she had never once believed that it could actually happen.

Mind snapping to the girls and the fact that there were more and more news vans arriving by the minute she fumbled in her bag for her phone, unsurprised to find a missed call from both of them, no doubt the gossip blogs that Miranda was trying to put them off reading, were already running whatever little pieces of information that they could get their hands on. Knowing that they would be together she just called the first on her recents list, pleased when Cassidy picked up on the first ring.

"Hey kiddo," she said, letting the barricade take her weight, finding her legs didn't really want to hold her up in that moment, "Are you with your sister?"

"Yeah, you're on speaker Andy. What's going on? The blogs say there has been a shooting at Elias Clarke and mom isn't answering her phone."

"I don't know much at the moment guys I'm sorry, I'm outside Elias Clarke with Uncle Nigel."

"Is mom with you?" Caroline this time, she wasn't as good as hiding her worry, or her hope, from her voice as her sister was.

"She isn't sweety, she's still inside, that's all we know at the moment, the whole Runway team are still upstairs. DO you want me to send Roy to get you?"

By the time she finished up her conversation with the girls Nigel had already called Roy and sent him over to Dalton to pick them up. A wave of activity at the doors drew both of their attention and Andrea spotted Emily's red hair in the crowd. Pushing through a gap in the barrier Andrea jogged towards the Brit and took her by the shoulders, Emily looked paler, if possible, than usual and her hands were shaking.  
"Em. Em what's going on?" she said gently, leading the other woman over to where Nigel was stood with his blazer in his hand ready to drape over Emily's shoulders. "Emily," she repeated in her most Miranda tone when she got no reply and it seemed to pull her around, "What's going on up there?"

"Maxine, she's gone insane, she shouldn't even have gotten passed security, she had her pass revoked."

"Maxine was Miranda's first assistant," Nigel supplied when the brunette shot him a questioning look, even five years after Emily had moved from the first assistants desk and onto bigger and better things Miranda reffered to all of her assistants as Emily and Andrea only ever knew that she had fired one if she came home and complained about it, "Miranda fired her last week."

"For losing the Chanel contract, I remember." Andrea interrupted, Miranda had built herself up into an absolute fit over that one. She hadn't said a word for the whole of dinner with the twins and it wasn't until the women had been alone to explode in a way that Andrea had only seen on a handful of occasions. From what she had understood, the lost contract had been the final straw, not an isolated incident.

"Amongst other things," Emily confirmed, "I knew there was something that wasn't right with that girl."

"Em, where's Miranda?"

"She's got them barricaded in the conference room. Miranda was meeting with editorial, Maxine kicked the rest of them out, I heard someone say that she fired a shot into the table but that's all I know."

"Oh shit." Andrea murmured, her hand coming up to cover her mouth, she thought she might be sick, "What have you gotten yourself into Mira?"

* * *

The sound of a window breaking from the inside pulled everyone's attention back to the building and if it hadn't been for Nigel's arm around her waist Andrea would have hit the floor, her legs deciding in the moment that they no longer wanted to hold her weight, she didn't know she was crying until he pressed a tissue into her hand.

"You have to try and pull it together six," He said carefully, "The girls will be here soon and until we know for certain what is going on we need to keep them calm." She nodded silently, knowing that he was right and started taking deep, calming breaths. Miranda was tough, she was a master negotiator and it would take more than an angry assistant to get to her, or at least that was what Andrea had to tell herself to stop herself completely falling apart.

* * *

She had just straightened herself up when more activity at the door drew her attention and this time it was the Police exiting with a curly haired woman handcuffed between them, she looked small and scared and Andrea couldn't believe that she was the one responsible for all this madness. A few minutes later Miranda emerged, walking between two annoyed looking paramedics. For the second time Andrea slipped through the barrier, ignoring the calls from the Police to get back, and headed straight for Miranda.

"Mira?"

"I'm ok." The older woman said in her usual measured tone, as Andrea got closer though she could see that that was far from the case, Miranda's skin was pale and clammy, she was trembling lightly, she was actually far from ok.

"I don't believe you for a second," Andrea murmured, forcing her way between Miranda and one of the paramedics, just needing to be near to Miranda after the uncertainty of the last hour. She understood why the older woman was doing this, why she had insisted on walking out when by the looks on the paramedics faces it went very much against medical advice, it served as just another reminder of how much the press effected their lives, "Where are we headed so I can reroute Roy with the girls?"

"Presbyterian." Was the short reply and Andrea looked to the woman, surprised that she looked even paler and appeared to be clenching her teeth, Andrea was trying her hardest not to look too closely at the damage, the bandaged shoulder, the blood that had ruined one of her favourite shirts on the older woman, the fact that there was probably a bullet in there somewhere. If she thought about it too much she would fall apart right there with half of the worlds press watching and she couldn't do that, so instead she busied herself with contacting Roy to take the girls to the hospital and then speaking to them to catch them up with what was going on.

The minute the ambulance doors were closed Miranda collapsed onto the gurney and let out a groan through gritted teeth which pulled Andrea to her side in seconds.

"Sweetheart?"

"Who knew being shot hurt so damn much!" she chuckled humourlessly, wincing when the movement jarred her shoulder. Andrea moved to the head of the bed, stroking her fingers soothingly through white hair while the paramedic attached a pulse oximeter and a plethora of other machines to the editor who now looked exhausted,

"Well now you know, you wont do it again," Andrea tried for light but her voice sounded flat and hollow to her own ears, "Because I think the last hour has taken ten years off my life."

"Who called you?" Miranda twisted her neck so she could take in the younger woman who looked pale and worried.

"They had the Police scanner on on the Crime Desk, I kind of shot off I should call Greg really."

* * *

By the time Andrea had gotten the girls back into the towncar with hugs and kisses and promises that she would call their father if anything changed and got back up to Miranda's room the lights had been dimmed and Miranda looked as though she was sleeping. Gently she lowered herself onto the edge of the bed, brushing her fingers through the woman's hair and closing her eyes against the tears that she had been holding back all afternoon. Miranda was ok, there would be no lasting damage, she was ok.

A cool hand on her cheek startled her and she opened her eyes to meet pale blue ones,

"I'm ok darling, look I'm fine," Miranda murmured, brushing the tears away

"You need to start being nicer to people Mira," she joked but her laugh turned into a sob and she allowed herself to be pulled down so that she was curled into Miranda's side, her face pressed into her neck, "Because if anyone ever takes you away from me I wont survive it."

"I'm not going anywhere," Miranda soothed, brushing her fingers through brunette tresses and dropping kisses onto her head. She had watched Andrea hold it together all through the ambulance ride, the consultation with the surgeon and the twins being there and she had been amazed by the younger woman's strength but her pain had to come out some time and she wasn't at all surprised that it was now. Miranda still felt numb, she had no doubt that it would all catch up with her at some point and she fully planned on taking her doctors advice and making an appointment with her therapist to talk about the incident but for now her numbness was a blessing, it meant she could look after Andrea and that would forever be her priority.

* * *

"Is everything here Emily?" Miranda asked quietly, Andrea was in the bathroom and she didn't want to be over heard. "The ring?"

"Everything is as you asked Miranda," The Brit said with a smile, "And Roy will be downstairs with the girls and all of your luggage when you are ready to leave."

"Thank you Emily, now go and enjoy your weekend, I don't want to hear that you've been sneaking into the office to work." She smirked at the surprise on her Art Directors face, "Take Serena to dinner, have the weekend together, you both deserve it." Andrea emerged from the bathroom just as Emily was trying to scrape her jaw off the floor.

"oh hey Em," she smiled, sliding into the seat beside Miranda's bed and taking her hand,

"Andrea," Emily nodded curtly, "If that's all Miranda?"

"Yes Emily, that's all."

"What did you do to her," Andrea chuckles when they were alone again

"I simply suggested that she take the weekend off and that she treat Serena to dinner. If it is supposed to be a secret then they ought to get better at hiding it."

"Darling you are wicked," she laughed, pressing a kiss to Miranda's hand, "Why was she here anyway?"

"I asked her to bring me some things from the office," Miranda replied, stroking her fingers over the hand holding her own and watching the brunettes face fall, at least this time she could prove her wrong, "Not work darling, just some lounge wear from the closet and something I had stored in the office safe." She chuckled at the intrigue which lit up the younger woman's face and was reminded again why she was so good at her job, why Andrea had been the one she trusted to tell the story of what had happened in that conference room, "Hand me the bag then come sit up here," she said patting the mattress beside her, pleased and unsurprised when Andrea did just that.

"Up in that conference room I had a lot of time to think," She started quietly, tangling their fingers together and squeezing lightly, "About my life, what I've achieved, what I've taken for granted ." she shifted slightly so she could face Andrea and smiled, "What I have now that I take for granted."

"I don't feel taken for granted sweetheart," Andrea smiled, running her fingers across her cheek, "The girls don't feel taken for granted."

"That doesn't mean you aren't. I know I could do more, be around more and from now on I will be. I've decided to make some changes, its past time that I started stepping back at the magazine. I don't plan on retiring for at least another two years but it's time that Nigel got some more responsibility so that he's ready to take over as editor when the time comes. I'd like to give him the responsibility of the book and most of the networking which will leave my evenings free to spend with you and the girls."

"I love you, you know that and if you wanted to continue working 15 plus hour days at Runway for the rest of your life I would support that but I wont deny that being able to spend more evenings as a family sounds wonderful."

"You interrupted me before I had the chance to finish." Miranda chastised lightly, "There's something else that I've wanted to do but I've never found the right time, but then I was faced with the prospect of never having had the chance to do it and I knew that that just wouldn't do. I never imagined I'd be doing it in hospital, Paris maybe, certainly after a nice dinner but needs must and I really must ask you Andrea Sachs, if you would do me the greatest honour and agree to be my wife. The time we have on this earth is never certain but I plan, if you'll allow me, to spend whatever time I have left by your side." She pulled a small box from the bag on her lap and flicked it open, revealing a beautiful ring and looked up at Andrea with a small smile, "So, what do you think? Can you spend the rest of your life pandering to the needs of a crazy old woman?"


	8. Chapter 8

So this was supposed to be a drabble, I started it when I was having a particularly bad day and needed to purge some feelings so I could get some sleep but it kind of took on a mind of its own. It was supposed to be straight up angst but for some reason I can't quite manage to ever keep it that way. Maybe one day I'll manage to make them both miserable and then leave them that way!

* * *

"This isn't working is it?" Andrea sighed, reclined against the pillows on her hotel bed, her phone wedged between her ear and her shoulder. She'd been in Boston for a month, had just been told her contract had been extended for at least another. She and Miranda had just finished what felt like their 100th argument since she'd arrived. She was tired and she knew Miranda was too; they couldn't keep up like this.

"I. No." Miranda's sigh echoed her own and she wished that she could at least see the older woman's face. But, if they were able to see each other maybe they wouldn't even be having this conversation. "I wish so much that it was Andrea but I can't keep doing this."

"I know, me either." It was no surprise really, that things weren't working particularly well. The contract for Boston had come at just the wrong time, but it was an opportunity that Andrea couldn't pass up, one that Miranda wouldn't let her. They had been tentatively working through their feelings for less than six months. After the mess of Paris it had taken them a long time to come back to each other and it had taken a happy accident to bring them back into each others orbit. What had started as a surprisingly good friendship had slowly been turning into something more. Andrea was convinced that given the time they could have been perfect together.

"So what happens now?" Miranda sounded so resigned that Andrea wished she could reach through the phone and pull her into an embrace. One of the most wonderful, and surprising, things she had discovered about Miranda during their relationship was her infinite sensitivity. "Because I refuse to lose you from my life again Andrea."

"And you wont, I told you that I could never walk away from you again and this doesn't change that." she said gently, "You aren't getting rid of me Priestly so don't even try."

She wouldn't deny that after they hung up that night she had cried. Neither would she deny that she loved Miranda Priestly, she doubted that she would ever truly move on from her. She found comfort in the fact that she was able to keep the woman and her children in her life, even if it wasn't in the way that she had been growing used to. They had both gone to great lengths to reassure the other that they wouldn't let this effect their friendship and Andrea knew that no matter how hard that turned out to be, she would keep her word.

* * *

It was another six months before Andrea set foot back in New York besides a whistle stop weekend to pack her apartment into storage. Miranda and the girls had come to visit a few times and it was astounding how easily the two women had slipped back into their easy friendship. She was pleased that this return trip was permanent, Boston had been an experience but it wasn't New York.

She hadn't told the twins or Miranda the exact date of her return, wanting to surprise them. That meant she was more than surprised to find the older woman waiting for her at the gate when she arrived at JFK. The other woman was lent casually against a pillar, sunglasses still in place, casual beige mac hugging her figure. A small smile caused an upward tilt of her lips and Andrea lip read the 'that's all' spoken into her phone as she made her way to her.

"Miranda how are you here?" she asked when she was close enough, "I didn't even tell you what day I was landing."

"Really, haven't you learnt by now Andrea, I'm Miranda Priestly." the editor said with a smirk which spread into a smile when Andrea chuckled.

"Oh how remiss of me to forget." The chuckle continued as she leant in to press a kiss of greeting to the older woman's cheek. "However that only answers the 'how' not the 'why'"

"I simply know how unpleasant it is to arrive home and not have a friendly face waiting for you." Miranda shrugged, linking her arm with Andrea's and tugging her towards baggage claim. "Come, lets get your bags and get back to the townhouse, there's a guest room set up for you."

"The townhouse? Miranda no I couldn't impose."

"Nonsense, where else would you stay?"

"I have a room at a hotel until I can find a place to rent." Andrea pulled the other woman to a halt and turned her to face her, "Miranda you don't have to do this."

"Andrea please." Miranda said quietly, slipping her sunglasses onto her head so she could look the brunette in the eye. "Let me do this. You don't know how long it will take you to find somewhere of your own and we have the room. More than anything else, the girls have missed you. It will be nice for them to see you before you find a job and are busy again."

"Just the girls Miranda?" Andrea nudged with a smirk, resuming their walk.

"Oh don't be so smug Andrea," Miranda drawled. "I'm a very busy woman, I don't have time to miss anyone."

* * *

"Andy!" the brunette was enveloped in twin hugs the minute the girls saw her when they returned home from school. She pulled them both close and kissed the top of each of their heads, she had missed them as much as she had missed their mother.

"Mom, why didn't you tell us Andy was coming home?"

"Because your mom didn't know either. Or she wasn't supposed to." Andrea smiled at the woman in question over the girl's heads. "She still hasn't told me how she came to be standing at my gate when I arrived at JFK this morning."

"Oh I think I did explain." Miranda smirked in return before their attention was once again consumed by the twins chatter. She would find out how Miranda had come to know exactly when she was going to be back if it was the last thing she did.

"So does this mean you and mom are getting back together?" Cassidy asked quietly so her mom couldn't overhear. The twins had been surprising supporters of hers and Miranda's relationship. Telling Andrea that they had never seen their mother so happy as she was around the brunette. It came then as no surprise that they were disappointed when they had sat them down the weekend she cleared out the apartment and told them what was going on. It had taken many assurances from both women to get them to believe that Andrea would still be a part of their lives.

"It's not that simple honey." She said gently, reaching out to brush the hair from the girls face.

"You stopped seeing each other because of the distance, you moved back to New York today. I don't see how it could be much simpler." Andrea chuckled, looping her arm around Cassidy's shoulder and pulling her closer on the bench seat.

"Look Cass, I love you guys and your mom so much, you know that and nothing is ever going to change that, you hear? You're not getting rid of me regardless of what goes on between me and your mom. But sweety, sometimes people are just better off being friends."

"I don't believe that about you and mom though." Cassidy sighed and Andrea sighed along with her, pressing a kiss to the top of the girls head. She didn't know what to say so she stayed quiet, brushing her fingers through red hair and trying to persuade herself that what she was saying was true. That she and Miranda _were_ better off being friends.

Once the twins took themselves to their room after dinner Miranda and Andrea retired to the study. Andrea curled up on the sofa with her laptop, not really planning on doing much, while Miranda took the desk, The Book and several layouts spread out in front of her.

"I still can't believe you missed a whole day at work to come and pick me up from the airport." She said quietly, getting comfortable and pulling the throw down from the back of the sofa.

"Some things are more important." Miranda said though she didn't look up and Andrea allowed the silence to fall over them again. She allowed her eyes to wander around the room, taking in all the things that hadn't changed since she had left, the things she had expected to change. Reminders of her time in that room were scattered everywhere. The throw was hers, a stack of her books and old research was stacked haphazardly on the coffee table and she could still see several pictures that she was a part of. She wasn't sure exactly what she had expected, especially when they had agreed that they would stay friends. But this study was Miranda's private sanctuary, a place where she could go to get away from everything, to focus. Andrea had been surprised that she had been allowed to make herself comfortable there and had been sure that if anywhere, her presence would have been wiped out of that room.

The sound of Miranda's pen scratching across the page and the rustle of turning pages must have lulled her to sleep because the next thing she was aware of was cool fingers on her cheek, the room darker than it had been. She opened her eyes to find Miranda crouched in front of her, her blue eyes shining in the light from the lamp.

"Hi." she said, stretching out along the length of the sofa, satisfied as her spine popped with the movement. "Sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep."

"Don't be." Miranda said and Andrea watched a slight sadness ghost across her eyes. "Why don't you go up to bed? I still have a few hours ahead of me and you obviously need the rest." With a sigh Andrea agreed, her last few days in Boston had been long and travel, no matter how short the flight, always took it out of her. Pushing herself upright she scrubbed at her face, watching Miranda straighten elegantly from her crouch.

"Don't stay up too late. I'd hate to be responsible for half of your staff getting fired tomorrow." She took the hand that Miranda offered and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet, gasping slightly when Miranda pulled her into a tight embrace. They had avoided that level of physical contact since they had decided to just be friends and although Andrea had missed it she had understood. Obviously though, Miranda had changed her mind. Against her better judgement she allowed herself to relax into the embrace, her arms looping around the older woman and her head falling into the crook of her neck.

"You get less funny the more tired you are you know." Miranda chuckled, her cheek pressed to the top of her head.

"No I don't, you just get less receptive when _you're_ tired."

"Quite." she felt a kiss pressed to the top of her head, "Go and get some sleep Andrea."

"I don't even know which room is mine," she murmured, forcing herself to pull away from the embrace and forcing a smile.

"2nd floor guestroom." Miranda leaned in and pressed a chaste kiss to her cheek, "Goodnight Andrea."

"Night Miranda. Don't stay up too late."

* * *

Despite how easy it had been to fall asleep on the sofa in the study Andrea found herself tossing and turning in the guest bedroom across the hall from Miranda's room. Her mind kept running over their interactions from that day, the shadow that she had been able to see in usually clear blue eyes when she had caught the other woman watching her. She felt at home in the townhouse, she knew it was dangerous but being surrounded by Miranda was sp much like home to her that she couldn't fight it. She wished it was as easy as Cassidy seemed to think, that simply the fact that she was back in New York was enough to make their relationship work. She knew that Miranda had ruined her for anyone else, that no matter what happened there would never be space in her heart for another person, it was full with Miranda and the girls.

Even asleep she felt restless, startling awake every time there was the slightest noise in the townhouse. At one point she rolled over and was convinced she caught sight of Miranda watching her from the door but sleep had reclaimed her almost immediately so all she was left with the next morning was a hazy memory.

She forced herself up and out of bed when she heard Miranda's shower running. It was only a little past 5:30 but while she was there she would make sure that Miranda went to work having had a proper breakfast. Something which the older woman was happy to miss if she thought no one was keeping an eye on her.

She was just turning the spinach omelette onto a plate when Miranda appeared in the kitchen looking as immaculate as ever.

"What's all this?" she asked, clearly surprised to find anybody up so early.

"I heard you up and came down to make you breakfast. I knew you would try and sneak away without otherwise." Andrea pushed the plate across the counter with one hand, cradling her coffee in the other and was pleased when Miranda settled into a stool and began to eat. "Tell me what you have planned today?"

"It's actually quite an empty day." Miranda said, taking a mouthful of her own coffee. "There is a board meeting this afternoon. What about you, what are your plans for the day?"

"I thought I would have a look at some apartments and I have a few freelance articles to get finished." Andrea shrugged.

"You know you don't have to rush to find a new place, there is a room for you here for as long as you need it." Miranda said, not looking up from the depths of her coffee mug. That was something that had happened a lot since her arrival the previous day. Miranda had never had problems meeting her eyes before but now she seemed to avoid it as much as she could and for Andrea that was another painful reminder of what had changed between them.

"I know, but I don't want to out stay my welcome." She tried to keep her voice light but the sudden thought of leaving the townhouse and how that would change her relationship with all three of its inhabitants made her voice heavy.

"Roy is here." Miranda said, flicking her eyes over her phone and finishing the last of her coffee. "I have a dinner this evening, hopefully it wont run too late but Cara can stay until I get back if you're too busy to watch the girls."

"No Miranda of course I'll watch them." Andrea was surprised and slightly hurt that Miranda would suggest that she wouldn't want to look after the girls. "Enjoy your day."

* * *

She kept herself busy for most of the day by slipping into what had become her routine on the days when she stayed over at the townhouse. She focused on getting the girls ready for school before going out for her morning run, adding on a few extra miles to try and clear any lingering sleep. Commandeering the kitchen table she spread out her notes, laptop and printer, only looking up when she heard the front door open and heels on the hardwood floor. Assuming it was just one of Miranda's assistants dropping something off she didn't pay it much attention, only looking up when the heels entered the kitchen behind her. She was surprised to find Miranda stood in the doorway looking furious.

"Miranda?" she asked tentatively, never sure of who or what Miranda's ire was being directed at at any given time. "You're home early." It was scarcely four, she was more than early, especially considering she had told Andrea that she was going to be late.

"If I had stayed I might have been inclined to dangle Irv from the roof by his toes." Well that explained that, Andrea relaxed slightly and patted the bench beside her, waiting until the older woman was seated to speak.

"Do I even want to ask?"

"Just the usual." Miranda rubbed her hands over her face and the tension leaked out of her as she relaxed. "There wasn't much to occupy me at the office, I was just pacing angrily there, so I thought I would come home."

"What time is your dinner?"

"Seven, I thought I might have a bath, take my time to get ready."

"Sounds like just what you need, don't let me stop you." Miranda sat quietly for a few moments before pushing herself up.

"Andrea," she said, stopping in the doorway but not looking round, "Thank you for being here."

* * *

The evening had been a bit of a blur once the twins got home and started demanding her attention, obviously taking advantage of having her around again. Miranda had stuck her head round the door to say goodbye at about 6:30 but Andrea had been swept back up into answering questions and checking homework to really take in what the older woman was wearing.

It was ten before she got everything done, the twins off to bed and the entertainment room and kitchen cleared up. She was just stacking her work on the kitchen table when she heard the door open, surprised when voices carried down the hall. She hadn't asked what Miranda's dinner was about but she certainly hadn't expected the other woman to be bringing someone home, not that it was any of her business she supposed, what Miranda did and who she did it with was none of her business and she would do well to remember that. The thought didn't stop the laugh that followed lancing through her like a bullet. It was the genuine laugh that she once thrilled in drawing from the older woman, a sound that very few people heard and she had given up the right to claim it as her own.

She sped up her tidying after that. Wanting to be shut away behind the closed door of her guest room before she saw or heard anything else to remind her of what she had given up. The following day she would find an apartment and she would move on, she was sure her sanity depended on it.

* * *

She didn't know how much later it was that she heard the tell tale creek of the top step that told her Miranda was headed to bed. She hadn't slept, she had been staring up at the ceiling and was ashamed to say that she had allowed herself to cry. She hadn't anticipated exactly how painful the knowledge that Miranda was maybe dating again could be. Even after they had decided to call it quits while she was in Boston they had spoken in some form every day and Miranda had visited with the twins as much as she could. They seemed to be managing to revert back to the friendship they had share before things escalated and once upon a time that would have included talking about dates. Andrea hadn't even considered how she would feel when Miranda started dating again but at least now she knew.

She held herself still when she heard the door opening, evening out her breathing so she appeared to be asleep. She expected Miranda to do nothing more than stick her head around the door and then head to her own bedroom but there was a long pause and a deep sigh before Andrea heard Miranda's feet padding across the carpet towards the bed. She tried hard not to move, not to react, to keep her breathing slow and even when she felt the bed dip beside her as the other woman sat down. She was overly aware of the dried tears on her cheeks, of how close the older woman was and of how much she could see in the low light. She didn't startle when cool fingers grazed across her cheek, almost expecting it now that the other woman had allowed herself to get so close. She shifted slightly the finger tips becoming a palm cupping her cheek, warm and smooth. She felt the woman shift and then lips pressed to her forehead.

"I wish so much that it wasn't the case but none of them will ever be you." Andrea's heart pounded painfully in her chest and she barely managed to swallow back a sob at the pain in the other woman's voice. There was some relief in the knowledge that she wasn't the only one struggling with all of this. The older woman lingered for a few moments longer before getting to her feet and retreating from the room, closing the door quietly behind her. Andrea managed to hold in her tears until the door closed but as soon as she heard it click shut her ragged sob echoed off the walls. If Miranda heard her, she didn't come back and Andrea found herself pleased by that.

* * *

Neither of them looked like they had gotten much sleep the next morning at breakfast. It was a much more leisurely affair than the previous morning, Saturday meaning that no one had to rush off to work or school. When she finally pushed herself out of bed at 8:30 and stumbled blearily into the kitchen Andrea found Miranda, still in her robe, mixing up pancake batter for a family breakfast.

"Coffee's fresh." She said, obviously taking one look at Andrea and deciding she needed it, "And I hear the twins up so breakfast wont be too long." Andrea nodded silently, poured herself a coffee and taking a seat at the breakfast bar. Allowing herself a few mouthfuls before she could bring herself to talk.

"How was your dinner?" she didn't really want to know, having already surmised that it was a date and not a business dinner, but she knew that it was polite to ask and hoped the girls would interrupt them before the conversation became too awkward.

"It was adequate." Again Miranda did not look up from her task, "It answered some questions I had." Andrea was saved by commenting further by the sound of thundering feet and the girls who appeared with eager hugs and smiles. As usual the meal revolved around the girls who kept up seamless conversation, one taking a mouthful of pancake while the other talked and on and on so that there was never more than a brief moments silence.

"Do you have work today mom?" Cassidy asked when the pancakes were gone and the adults were left cradling their coffee,

"No Bobbsey, we just sent the August edition to print so everything is quiet for the weekend until we shift our focus to the September issue on Monday."

"What about you Andy?" The girl turned to her with a smile, "Do you have any plans or can we all have a day together?" Andrea tried not to squirm under the focused scrutiny of all three Priestly woman, it was something she never got used to no matter how much time they all spent together.

"I had planned on looking for an apartment so I can get out of your hair." She said quietly, staring into the bottom of her mug.

"You don't need an apartment you have a room here." Caroline huffed dramatically, "Mom tell her!"

"Caroline, if Andrea wishes to find and move into her own apartment we cannot stop her. All I can do is repeat that she is welcome here for as long as she needs." Miranda got to her feet, again refusing to look at Andrea, "Now I am going to go and get dressed, you two decide what you want to do with your day and I wont be long."

"Grown ups suck!" Caroline huffed , though she was sensible enough to wait until her mother was out of ear shot, leaving Andrea as the sole focus of her ire.

"Caroline."

"Nu uh. No! You don't get to do that, not when you are going to walk away from us."

"Caro sweety," Andrea said gently, kneeling down in front of the girl and pushing the hair from her face so she could meet her eye. "We talked about this. Just because me and your mom aren't seeing each other anymore doesn't mean I'm going to just disappear. I'm not that easy to get rid of. But I can't stay here forever, this isn't my home."

"But it could be." Cassidy murmured and Andrea looked up at the girl, where Caroline's eyes were angry, Cassidy's were just sad.

"It couldn't Cass. Me and your mom, we just didn't work."

"Except it did until you left!" it was Caroline again and her eyes flashed the way Miranda's did when she was angry, Caroline hadn't learnt yet that quiet anger worked better than shouting but when she did she would be as terrifying as her mother. "And then mom went all weird again, like she did after Paris."

"I'm sorry Caro, Cass, honestly." Andrea rubbed her hand over her eyes and pushed herself to her feet. "It's for the best , we all just need to get used to the change."

"Take a look at Page6." Caroline ground out as Andrea left the room. "Then tell me this is all for the best."

* * *

Andrea made her way slowly to her guest bedroom, closing the door tightly behind her and dropping onto the edge of the bed, her head in her hands. This was much harder than she had anticipated especially in light of the twins obvious ill feelings about the situation. Caroline's words echoed in her head and she pulled her laptop towards her opening up Page6 and a few of the other gossip blogs. It wasn't unusual to find Miranda front and centre on Page6. As the older woman had said all those years ago in Paris, Rupert Murdoch really should write her a cheque for all of the papers she sold for him. The image they had decided to run of the previous night made Andrea feel sick in a way she knew it had no right to. Her eyes immediately focused of all the points where Miranda touched the other woman who was tall, blonde and thin, a model judging by the way she held herself and she was young, younger than Andrea. This girl was not Miranda's type. Unfortunately the picture, and the smaller ones around it, told a completely different story. She felt the tears rise unbidden in her eyes and did nothing to stop them falling as she looked at the other sites she had open. The pictures weren't that different just the facial expressions they showed, Miranda smiling, Miranda with her head tipped back in a laugh, a shot of them from behind a possessive hand pushed into the small of Miranda's back and she knew what happened next, an invitation back to the townhouse for a nightcap away from prying eyes. The tears continued to fall as she tormented herself with every picture, every scrap of text that she could find, until she was crying so hard that she couldn't see, could barely breathe.

Dropping her laptop to the floor she curled sideways on the bed, hugging herself tightly as she tried to get her breathing under control, something that was harder to do than she liked. She startled when a gentle hand rolled her onto her back, her hands flying up to cover her face, to mask her tears when Miranda's face swam blearily into view.

"Andrea." She said gently and Andrea sobbed harshly. Feeling herself being pulled into strong arms she couldn't find the strength to resist the embrace and curled as tightly into it as she could. "Oh sweetheart."

"I thought I could do this Miranda." She breathed out, "But I can't, it hurts too much."

"I know darling, I know." Miranda spoke quietly but she could hear the tell tale signs that the older woman was crying too.

"I need to find an apartment, I can't do this, living here with you, hearing you bring your dates home. It hurts too much."

"Andrea that wasn't a date." She took the girls face in her hands and tried to meet her eyes but Andrea resisted,

"That's not what it looked like, what it sounded like." She tried angry but it came off pathetic to her own ears, "I've certainly never seen you touching a business associate like that." Miranda's eye skittered away from her face when Andrea tried to meet them and she knew that she had caught the lie. "Don't lie to me Miranda, it's not going to make this any easier. You should go, the girls will be waiting for you."

"They can wait, this is important." Miranda said quietly. "It was a date but it was awful Andrea, it was such a stupid idea. You seemed so happy with the way things were, I needed to try and move on."

"If moving on is what you want Miranda you have to let me do it too and that means moving out of the townhouse." Andrea pushed herself away from the older woman, putting some space between them, needing it to get herself under control. Miranda frowned, rubbed her hand over her eyes with a sigh.

"This isn't coming out right." She muttered, fixing clear blue eyes on Andrea, "We need to sit and have a proper conversation about this when there's no chance we will be interrupted. Come out with us today, for the girls? We can talk tonight when they go to their sleepover."

"ok." Andrea nodded, knowing that if she stayed she would simply spend most of the day crying, "Let me have a shower and get dressed, I'll try and be quick."

* * *

She was pleased, in the end, that she had allowed herself the day with Miranda and the girls. Caroline managed to let go of her anger and although Cassidy's eyes held a hint of the sadness she had shown Andrea at breakfast she still managed to smile and enjoy herself. Even Miranda was smiling and the managed to keep all of the tension between them at bay, at least until the twins left for their friends house the silence fell heavily between them. Miranda reverted back to being unsure of herself, something Andrea never imagined was possible before their friendship began, and Andrea went back to wanting to be angry but instead feeling hopelessly sad. She had taken a seat at the kitchen table while Miranda fussed around in the kitchen, no doubt trying to muster up the courage or the words to start the conversation they really needed to have.

"Who was she?" she asked finally, managing some of the anger that she felt she needed to hold onto, watching Miranda who paused in what she was doing and sighed.

"She's a model for Karl, we met at a preview a few weeks ago."

"I didn't think you were interested in models Miranda. Too much self interest, not enough depth. Your tastes had changed in the last six months."

"I'm not. They haven't." Miranda pressed her hands into the counter top and looked at Andrea imploringly, "You don't need to torture me Andrea, I have no problem admitting that it was a monumental mistake. That I went to dinner with her because I mistakenly thought that that was what you wanted."

"You thought I wanted you to go parading around town with some model. Really Miranda?!" Angry in earnest she pushed to her feet and stalked towards the breakfast bar. "How could you possibly think that that was what I wanted?"

"Stop!" Miranda held up her hand and took a steadying breath before meeting Andrea's eyes with steely determination. "We talked about this this morning, the whole point of this talk was that we talk about what we really wanted. Can we do that, can you tell me what it is that you really want?"

* * *

1 Year Later

Andrea packed the last book into the box and sat back on her feet surveying the room around her. The apartment was once again stripped of all personality, all of her belongings boxed up and awaiting the removal truck the following day. Hearing the front door open she looked up and smiled when Miranda came into view, still in her Runway clothes, bag balanced in the crook of her arm along with a Smith and Wolensky take out bag, a bottle of champagne dangling from her fingers. She was a vision, one Andrea had been waiting to see all week.

"My aren't you a sight for sore eyes," she sighed, dropping her bags just inside the door and stepping straight out of her shoes, moving towards the brunette who pushed to her feet and met her in the middle.

"Look who's talking." Andrea muttered, snagging the older woman's hand and pulling her into an embrace, "I thought this week would never end."

"Mmmm, but I'm here now." Miranda buried her face in her neck and simply breathed for a few moments before straightening out. "Just let me change and we can eat, then I'll help you with your packing."

"I left some clothes out and there is a suit bag there for what you are wearing." Andrea said, pressing a kiss to her cheek and giving her a final squeeze before letting go. She watched her across the room and to the bedroom before collecting the food and heading to the kitchen.

When they had finally managed to get to the root of what they really wanted and agreed that they both wanted to give it a try Andrea had still insisted on getting her own apartment. She strongly believed that where Boston had been too much distance too soon, her staying at the townhouse would be too little space too soon and she wanted to give what was between them a fighting chance. While the year hadn't been without its ups and downs they had made it work and they had decided that it was time that they moved in together. The following day a removal van would pick Andrea's belongings up and take them to the newly renovated townhouse where they would start the next chapter of their lives together.

"Really Andrea?" Miranda appeared in the doorway with a raised eyebrow and Andrea laughed. She'd failed to mention that the clothes she had left out for the other woman were her most well worn ripped jeans and a thread bare North Western t-shirt. Unsurprisingly Miranda still managed to look beautiful.

"Come here," Andrea held out her hand and pulled her onto her lap. The other chair at the dining table was filled with boxes and she hadn't wanted to move them, preferring to keep the other woman close after their week apart.

"You look gorgeous." She said pressing a kiss to the back of Miranda's neck finally feeling she could relax now that Miranda was back, knowing that tomorrow they would finally be home, together, "Now tell me about the shoot and don't spare any details."


	9. Three Times

So I pretty much hate this, but it's written and it's typed which is a miracle when it comes to me, so I figured I might as well post it.

* * *

Migraine

Miranda looked up when she heard movement in the door of her study and was on her feet and at her lovers side the minute she took in the younger woman's pale face and tense shoulders.

"Darling?" she said gently, reaching up to stroke the brunettes cheek, "Are you ok?"

"Migraine," the younger woman mumbled and Miranda slipped her arm around her shoulder and immediately led her away from the study and towards the bedroom, most of Andrea's weight leant into her body. The other woman had only had one other migraine in the time that they had been together and on that occasion Miranda had come home to find her curled up on the floor of the en suite sleeping having spent an hour throwing up the content of her stomach. Having never had more than a tension headache herself Miranda had no way to know exactly what Andrea was going through, but seeing how pale and weak she had been had broken her heart. She'd done some research since and now had a whole arsenal of things up her sleeve to try and make that time around more comfortable for her love.

Depositing Andrea carefully on the bed Miranda flitted around the room, grabbing comfortable PJ's, painkillers and a glass of water as well as pulling the heavy curtains closed to block out the late afternoon sun. Leaving the items she had collected on the bedside table she turned again to Andrea to find that she had barely moved. Crouching down in front of her she stroked the woman's cheek and brushed her hair behind her ear,

"How long?" she asked quietly, slipping of Andrea's shoes

"About lunch time but I was working to a deadline, I thought I could get finished up before it got too bad."

"Tell me you didn't get the subway home?" she said as she continued to divest the brunette of her clothes and reached for the PJ's, helping her into them.

"No, no I got a cab." Andrea sighed, pulling her hair up into a lose twist as she carefully maneuvered her body to help Miranda without jostling her head too much.

"You should have called darling, I could have sent Roy to get you." Getting to her feet Miranda quickly changed into her own lounge wear then handed the water and the pain pills to Andrea, "Take these and drink this, I'll be back in a moment."

She returned with her mobile and the book to find that Andrea had done as she was told but hadn't moved much further simply sitting with her eyes closed and breathing steadily. Dropping her things onto her bedside table she carefully pulled Andrea to her feet and pulled back the covers, sliding into the bed and getting herself situated against the headboard. Patting the mattress between her thighs, she reached out to tug the younger woman to her. It said something perhaps about how awful Andrea felt that she did not resist or argue, simply crawled into the space, bracketed by Miranda's thighs and curled up against her body, twitching the blanket over both of them Miranda began to rhythmically stroke Andrea's head and back.

"Close your eyes darling, get some sleep."

"Will you read to me?" she mumbled, her eyes already slipping closed and Miranda smiled, pressing a kiss to the top of her head before reaching out to pull a thin volume of poetry from her bedside table, juggling it open with one hand, the other continuing to run soothingly over the younger woman's back as she read. It wasn't long before the brunette fell asleep but Miranda kept up her actions and her reading. She had brought the book with the intention of working on it once Andrea had fallen asleep but she found she really didn't want to and so she continued to read, her young love curled against her chest snoring lightly. The Book and Runway could wait a few hours, some things were simply more important.

* * *

Hangover (because it's a type of sick)

Miranda rolled over and cracked her eyes open at the sound of retching coming from the en suite. With a sigh, she pushed herself upright and cast a glance at the clock, 6:30am on her first free Sunday in weeks. Brilliant. She briefly considered pulling the duvet up over her head and going back to sleep, this was self inflicted after all, but the part of her that knew how pathetic Andrea looked when she was ill couldn't ignore her other half's plight. Rolling out of bed she pulled on her robe and padded to the en suit, grabbing a hair elastic from Andrea's side of the bed as she went.

"I'm ok, you can go back to bed." Andrea groaned from where she was lying on the cool tiles, she looked positively green.

"Don't be ridiculous, you've woken me, now you'll deal with me." Miranda snapped, she may have chosen to get out of bed but that didn't mean that she couldn't make Andrea suffer a little for it. Pouring a glass of water she put it on the floor beside the woman's head and riffled through the cabinet for some pain pills, making as much noise as she could.

"Miranda please." Andrea groaned from her prone position, "I know you're angry but please, hold fire until I can defend myself."

"Oh sorry dear, am I making your headache worse?" Miranda snarked, dropping the Tylenol box an inch from the brunettes nose before lowering herself gracefully to the floor beside her.

"Have I mentioned lately that I hate you?"

"Not this week sweetheart." she smiled, brushing the hair from the brunettes face, "And I know you only hate me when you are hungover."

"Only because you are so smug." Andrea murmured, rolling onto her back with a groan, "What time is it?"

"About quarter to seven." she said lightly, trying to keep the annoyance from her face as she stroked her fingers through brunette locks,

"Oh shit Miranda, I'm sorry. Go back to bed, honestly I'm ok."

"Not without you, do you think you're done being sick?"

"Yeah I think so," Andrea nodded, beginning to push herself upright and groaning as the room swam, "I might need help up of the floor." Miranda chuckled lightly and pushed herself up, holding out her hand for the younger woman to take and bringing her slowly to her feet. She pulled her into a hug and kissed her temple before leading the way back to the bed.

The next time she woke it was to a weight impacting on her stomach and a pathetic whimper from the bed beside her. Cracking her eyes open she smiled up at the red head looking down at her and reached up to brush unruly hair away from their youngest daughters face.

"Morning sweetheart," she smiled and the little girl nuzzled at her face with a grin

"Katy honey, can you take your knees out of mummy's tummy?" Andrea asked quietly but Miranda could hear the quaver in her wife's voice, her sympathy for the brunette only growing when their daughter pushed herself up onto her knees instead. She was very impressed that her young wife managed to refrain from swearing at the action, but from the look on her face and the way it greyed she was too focused on not throwing up for her to process any kind of verbal reaction. Jumping to action she pulled herself up and simultaneously pulled the girl onto her knee.

"Why don't you and I get breakfast started, give your mummy the chance to wake up properly?"

"Pancakes!" Katy squealed and she saw Andrea wince, unable to suppress the smirk at her wife's obvious discomfort. It would serve her right for letting Nigel lead her astray!

* * *

Period Pain

"No," Andrea muttered when Miranda's alarm pierced the silence and the older woman leant over to switch it off and began to climb out of bed. She chuckled at the feel of strong arms curling round her waist and holding her back.

"Andrea darling, I need to get up for work," she said gently, landing back on the edge of the bed and twisting to regard her wife, stroking gentle fingers through her hair. She looked exhausted and Miranda wanted nothing more than to climb back into bed with her and forget about the rest of her day. "Is it a bad one?" Miranda had been relatively lucky when it came to periods, never finding them anything other than slightly uncomfortable but that meant that when she had first seen Andrea go through one of hers a few months into their relationship she'd assumed the younger woman was exaggerating. They hadn't spoken for over a week after that one and when the next month came around and Andrea seemed to breeze through it Miranda had become even more skeptical. It hadn't been until they were living together and she had whitnessed the whole process first hand that she realized that the younger woman must be a damn good actress, because she had no idea how she had managed to cover up how bad she actually got for so many months and go on like everything was fine.

"Mhm," Andrea groaned, "The worst."

"What can I do?" she asked gently, Andrea looked like she might be on the brink of tears and it pulled at her heart.

"I just need some painkillers and a heating pad." Miranda nodded and pressed a kiss to her forehead before pushing herself to her feet.

"Give me a couple of minutes."

On her way downstairs, Miranda reviewed her day in her head. She couldn't do anything about her morning, Irv wouldn't budge on a board meeting but there may be something she could do about her afternoon.

When she returned home at lunch time, the board meeting having dragged on much longer than she was happy with, she dropped her things into the study on the way past and followed the sound of the TV to the entertainment room. Stopping in the doorway she took in the sight of her wife curled up on the large sofa, their daughter curled against her chest and the little girls blanket thrown haphazardly over both of them. Andrea turned away from the TV when she heard movement, a smile breaking out over her still pale face,

"You're home early," she said with a raised eyebrow as Miranda settled herself beside the younger woman as best she could without disturbing Katy.

"There wasn't much to be done and I thought I may be better appreciated at home."

"You're right, you are," Andrea sighed, shifting so her head was pressed into the older woman's side, "You're just in time for nap time."

"I see that." Miranda chuckled, running her fingers through brunette hair, "If I change do you think there's room for me?"

"Definitely," Andrea grinned and gave a nudge with her head, "Don't take too long."

When she came back wearing a soft jumper and a pair of leggings Andrea had rearranged their daughter so she was lying the length of her body leaving the rest of the sofa free for her. Picking up the throw from the back of the armchair she lay it over both of them, curling next to Andrea and tucking her arm protectively over them both.

"Feeling better?" she asked quietly, pressing a kiss to the other woman's bare shoulder

"I am now."

* * *

And 1 time Miranda was...

"Oh sweetheart, you never do anything by halves do you?" Andrea said gently, lowering herself carefully onto the edge of the bed, careful not to disturb the baby cradled in her arms. Miranda looked exhausted but at least she was awake and their was a little more colour in her face than there had been since they had wheeled her out of the maternity ward the previous evening. Exhaustion, they were saying and she wished she could be more surprised about the fact. The older woman had been working 3 times as much as normal to get all of her loose ends tied up before she took extended leave when the baby was born, as well as trying to spend as much time with the girls as she could while they were both home and looking after Andrea. The brunette had lost count of the number of times she had pleaded with the older woman to slow down only to be told to stop fussing but it had all come to a head not long after Katy had been born and Andrea had only just been cleared to visit her wife.

"What are you doing out of bed? You should be resting." the older woman's voice was rough with exhaustion but the irritation was evident in her tone

"Pot, kettle," Andrea chuckled, Miranda's glare doing nothing to temper her amusement, "Katy and I have been discharged, I popped by to see if you wanted to join us in going home but if you want me to rest I'll be going..." Miranda's hand was on her knee to hold her in place before she had even had the chance to think about moving.

"I'm sorry darling, this is just all so ridiculous and I..."

"I know," Andrea soothed, "But I've been trying to tell you for weeks that you needed to slow down and look after yourself."

"I honestly thought I was ok." Andrea could tell by the look on the woman's face that that wasn't entirely true but she would drop it for the moment.

"Any idea when they are going to let you go home?" she asked instead

"Once this bag of fluids is empty and my bloods come back," Miranda sighed, "A couple of hours?"

"Think you could tolerate some company?" there wasn't even a small part of Andrea that wanted to go home without her wife even though she knew that the girls would be there, they were supposed to take Katy home from the hospital together and she'd be dammed if she allowed anything to stop that.

"Only if you're sure you wouldn't be better off at home."

"I'm sure," Andrea smiled, just as Katy began to fuss in her arms, "Do you think there's some room up there for us? I think this little one wants to spend some time getting to know her momma."

Curled into her wife's side, watching the other woman coo and fuss over their little girl, Andrea took the first full breath she had taken since the previous evening. The circumstances weren't ideal, neither one of them at full strength and a newborn to look after hadn't been what either of them planned but they were, all three of them, ok and mostly healthy. They could over come all the other obstacles they had to face together.

"She's beautiful," Miranda murmured, stroking her finger over a tiny cheek, Andrea unable to take her eyes off her wife, while still exhausted there was a happy glow to the other woman's face and she was as beautiful as the little girl she was holding.

"She is, and she's going to need her momma to teach her all of the ways of the world, not to mention fashion, she's going to need you healthy for that which means you need to start looking after yourself."

"I know," Miranda sighed, pressing a kiss to the top of Andrea's head, "I'm sorry that this happened and I promise to do everything I can to make sure it doesn't happen again. I might need your help every now and again though, both of you."


	10. Affair

This was supposed to be a little short which just ran away from me, I feel like it rambles a lot but I can't work out how to fix it and I hate to waist things that I actually manage to type so I'm posting it anyway. The prompt was Affair and I've explored a softer side of Miranda that I don't usually.

This one shot comes with a warning for domestic violence.

* * *

Andrea stepped out of the en-suite wrapped in a towel, her hair piled up onto the top of her head in a messy bun. She startled slightly when she found Miranda still in the room, sat elegantly in the wingback chair in the corner of the room in nothing but her robe, her face inscrutable. The brunette tried to ignore her, not sure why she had broken with their usual routine but not really wanting to know either, she needed to leave and she knew that paying the other woman any mind would only hinder her progress. It was very much easier thought than done and she knew that before she even tried, if Miranda Priestly was in a room she demanded the attention of every other person in it, even when she was devoid of make up and wearing only her haphazardly fastened robe. She startled again when the older woman's fingers grazed her bare thigh as she passed to get her clothes and she spun to regard the woman who slowly lifted her head to meet her eyes. The usually clear blue eyes were clouded with what Andrea could only describe as hurt, deep, deep hurt and she reached out to cup a soft, pale cheek.

"Don't," Miranda muttered, her voice as unsure as Andrea had ever heard it as she twisted her head away from the caress, "You need to get ready, it's almost six." And there it was, the reminder that they were on a timer, that this wasn't permanent and the knowledge speared through her like it always did when she was reminded of the rules of their arrangement.

"I can be a few minutes late," she said, falling to her knees in front of the older woman, her hands gliding under the robe to rest high on pale thighs.

"No you can't," Miranda sighed, tipping her head back so she didn't have to look at her, "Nate will be waiting for you, you need to leave." Andrea winced at the roughness in the voice.

"If you wanted me to leave," she murmured, not moving from her position but starting to move her fingers in random patterns over the skin beneath them, "Then why were you sitting here when I cam out of the shower?"

"Because," Miranda puffed out a breath and put her hands over Andrea's to stop them moving any higher, "I didn't want to miss a single moment of this last time."

"Last time. Miranda?" Andrea reached up, bringing the older woman's face to hers and gasped at the tears in blue eyes, "Miranda, what's going on?"

"We can't keep doing this, I can't keep doing this. You need to leave and this needs to end, tonight."

"Miranda I..." she was at a loss, she didn't know where this was coming from, hadn't expected it, she'd thought they were both happy with their arrangement, that things had been working well for both of them, "I don't understand."

"I can't keep doing this Andrea, I can't keep holding out for a few hours with you every few weeks, I can't keep doing this knowing that you are always going to choose to leave and go back to him."

"That's what you wanted, I thought this was working for both of us." she'd moved away from the older woman and was sitting back on her feet, looking into wet blue eyes, she'd never seen Miranda even close to tears before.

"It was," Miranda shrugged, "Until it wasn't. It was until I allowed my feelings to become involved. I allowed myself to feel something I never should have felt and I need to stop it now before it tears me apart" the tears had over flowed now and although the older woman's face remained stoic, her eyes gave everything away when you knew what you were looking for. "I love you Andrea and I can live with knowing that the feeling isn't returned but not if we keep doing this."

"Miranda," she pushed herself up onto her knees and cupped the woman's cheek, whipping the tears away with her thumbs, "I don't want to lose this, it, you, make me happy."

"But darling you don't love me." Miranda said with a sad smile, brushing brunette bangs out of the younger woman's face, "You love Nate and this isn't fair on him, or me, or you."

"I..." did she love Nate? If she did love him would she have found this thing with Miranda so easy to do? She hadn't lied when she had told the older woman that she made her happy, in the beginning it had surprised her, how happy her relationship, if you could call it that, with Miranda made her but she had come to realize that she shouldn't be surprised because there had always been something about the other woman that had attracted her, interested her. But she could be happy with this with Miranda and with Nate couldn't she, she could do both? "I need you in my life Miranda."

"You don't, you might think you do but you don't Andrea. You'll walk away from this and in no time you'll have forgotten all about me and you'll be ok, you'll be happy." It all sounded so final and Andrea felt like she wanted to be sick,

"What about you?"

"I'll carry on like I always do, content in the knowledge that I set you free, that you are living the life you deserve." Miranda leant forward and pressed a kiss to the other woman's forehead, lingering slightly as she committed every nuance of her to memory, "Come now, get dressed, Nate will be waiting."

* * *

"Andy. Andy!" she startled slightly at the raised voice and blinked to bring herself back to the moment, focusing on Nate where he was stood in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room.

"Sorry, what?" she asked rubbing at her eyes, she was so tired,

"I said Lily and Doug are meeting for drinks, we should go and meet them."

"Oh yeah, ok." she said, trying to force some enthusiasm into her voice though the look on Nate's face told her just how miserably she had failed. It had been weeks since the four of them had gotten together and she knew she should be pleased at the prospect of spending time with them but she was struggling to muster up the enthusiasm for anything much recently.

"Oh say it like you mean it why don't you." he snapped and Andrea wished she could blame him for getting angry, "I don't know what's gotten into you lately but whatever it is I wish you'd snap out of it!"

"Nate, I'm sorry I..." she didn't know what to say, he was right, the last few weeks she had been awful, she was barely sleeping, when she did it was for short periods of time and it was never restful, it was making her snappy and impatient, her work was suffering desperately and now apparently her relationship was too.

Ever since that last night with Miranda she just hadn't been able to pull herself back together. the older woman had kissed her once, sadly, before she left that night and the 'goodbye' she'd murmured as she'd closed the door had sounded so, so final that a crack had appeared in her heart that she didn't think would ever heal, and, true to her word, Miranda had been ignoring her calls and messages ever since.

"Save it Andy, I'm going to go and meet our friends, if you manage to pull your head out of your ass join us, if not, don't wait up." Nate didn't look at her as he gathered his things and left, the door slamming closed was harsh in the silence and she rubbed a hand over her face unsurprised when they came away damp. Something that she had managed to do very well over the last few weeks was cry.

Miranda's words had been circling in her mind ever since that night,

 _"I love you Andrea,"_

 _"But darling you don't love me. You love Nate and this isn't fair on him, or you, or me."_

The words had forced her to step back and take stock and she had felt utterly wretched the moment she had realized what she had been doing. She had been abusing two people's trust, two people's happiness just to make herself happy. The wide eyes and innocent Andy Sachs who had moved to New York with her boyfriend, her sites set on saving the world with her words, would have been mortified at the very idea yet she had done it without giving it a second thought, without even realizing she was doing it. Nate and Miranda deserved better and she more than deserved to be sitting alone in the dark of her apartment, tears leaking slowly from her eyes.

The older woman's words had also made her reconsider her feelings. Andrea had been so sure that Andrea loved Nate and didn't love her, so sure that it was all black and white, but the more Andrea thought about it, the more unsure she was about the facts. She did love Nate, of that she was sure, it was true that it was a different love than she had felt for him at the start, but it was love. He made her feel comfortable and safe, he loved her in his own way and they were happy, weren't they? She knew there were hardly fireworks anymore but they had been together years, it was to be expected, a little less excitement, wasn't it?

And then there was Miranda, and where did you start when it came to Miranda Priestly? Ever since she had met the woman she had caused a stronger than usual reaction in her though to begin with it hadn't all been positive. As she had gotten to know the editor, at least as well as anyone every knew her, her frustration had warped into some kind of understanding. She couldn't pinpoint the time when attraction had been added to the mix, but it hadn't been until she had walked away in Paris that she had given those feelings any kind of attention.

But then, the second time they had met, it had been impossible to ignore the chemistry. They'd been playing the game for almost a year, getting together as often as their schedules allowed. It started out as simply physical, they would meet at an out of the way hotel where Miranda was unlikely to be recognized, spend a few hours together then go their separate ways. But that had all changed one afternoon in November when they had been due to meet but Andrea had come down with the flu and had barely been able to move from bed to the sofa, never mind schlep across the city to a hotel. They'd not seen each other for almost five weeks and when Andrea had called to cancel Miranda had decided that that just wouldn't do. An hour later, Roy had shown up at her apartment under strict instructions to bundle her into the car and deliver her to the townhouse. Unable to argue or to care much what she looked like she'd followed, knowing that putting up a fight would have gotten her nowhere.

She'd been amazed when she arrived at the townhouse where she had been ushered in by a relaxed, for her at least, Miranda and lead into the den where she had been dumped in the corner of the sofa with the most sinfully soft throw, kissed on the forehead and then left alone for a while. She'd been starting to drift off when Miranda had eventually returned laden down with a tray filled with steaming bowls of chicken soup, grilled cheese sandwiches and tea with honey and lemon and her eyes had bugged out even further when she had been handed her food and Miranda had murmured,

"I hope it's ok, it's been a while since the twins have wanted me to make them chicken soup when they are ill."

The afternoon had progressed quietly, they'd talked about the girls, Andrea had dozed, allowed herself to be moved so that she was lying with her head in Miranda's lap, drifted in and out while the older woman stroked her fingers through her hair and talked about everything and nothing. When it came time for Andrea to go home Miranda had insisted on riding with her in the towncar, kissing her forehead lightly and pressing a flask of chicken soup into her hand before she left the car.

Everything had changed after that, they had dinner, they talked, they no longer simply met in hotels. Miranda Priestly made Andrea feel cherished, beautiful, important, she challenged her in ways no one ever had before and Andrea had missed those feelings, missed the woman since the last time they had been together.

Rubbing at her face roughly she sighed and pushed herself to her feet, moving to the bathroom to splash water over her skin. Sitting around thinking wasn't going to make her feel any better. She should go and meet her friends, her boyfriend, get herself back on track, because Miranda had obviously given up on her, and Nate, he deserved better.

* * *

It was another month before Andrea saw the older woman again and it happened quite by accident. After a string of successful freelance articles Andrea had begun to receive invitations to some of the smaller journalism events in the city. Up until that point they had all been small enough that she didn't even have to consider the possibility of Miranda being there, knowing that if anyone from Runway was there it would be Nigel or Emily. It made her feel better, knowing that there wasn't a chance that she would bump into the older woman, especially on the nights when Nate accompanied her. When she had received the invite to the New York Journalism Awards she hadn't thought twice about it, it just wasn't the type of invitation you turned down and Nate had that night off work so had agreed to accompany her.

She felt good that night, she'd found a Chanel LBD in the back of her wardrobe that she hadn't worn in a while and although it was several seasons old it didn't look dated, she had hesitated over shoes before pulling a box from the very back of her wardrobe which contained a pristine pair of Blahniks. They had been a gift, shyly presented to her by Miranda for her birthday, but she hadn't dared wear them before. She didn't know why but that night felt like the right night to wear them.

By the time they arrived at the venue she was already to strangle Nate and was wishing she had asked Doug to accompany her instead. Nate had done nothing but pout and complain all the way over, slating everything from the who he thought the other guests would be to the way Andrea herself looked and she'd stopped saying anything knowing that he would take issue with whatever she said. He was like that more often than he wasn't despite how much she was trying to leave Miranda behind and make it work between them, she often wondered why she bothered.

"Why is it always champagne? I bet it's the really cheap stuff too, I just want a beer." He griped, though Andrea didn't miss that he chugged back half of his glass anyway, "We sell better than this at the restaurant."

"Nate for gods sake," she snapped, fighting to keep her voice low, "Can you just pretend that you want to be here, at least for an hour?!"

He managed it for about twenty minutes until the atmosphere in the room changed and Andrea knew without looking exactly what that meant, she felt a slight thrill in the knowledge that the older woman was there while at the same time worrying about the fact she was there with Nate, and then he opened his mouth and confirmed her fears.

"Oh god, look who it is. Isn't that that bitch you worked for at that magazine?!" Andrea wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole, the only blessing was that the editor she had been talking to had just taken his leave so she was the only one who heard Nate's tirade. "God she's older than I thought and what's with the hair?"

"Nate," she ground out, taking him firmly by the arm and pulling him into a quiet corner, "Please, why are you being like this tonight? This is my job, these are the people who can make or break me and that includes Miranda."

"She made your life hell Andy, why do you even care what she thinks?" he looked furious and she wished she knew what had gotten into him, "she's a bitch, someone needs to give her a reality check."

"Nate, what is wrong with you? If you didn't want to come tonight all you had to do was say, you've done nothing but be awful since we left the apartment and now Miranda who has done nothing to you, is getting the brunt of your bad mood, you know nothing about her or the work she does."

"I know she made your life hell, almost ended our relationship."

"No Nate, I may not have realised it at the time, but all she ever asked of me was that I do my job properly like any other employer would," she bit out, it wasn't the first time they had gone through this and she doubted it would be the last, "As for our relationship Nate, there are only two people who have the power to ruin it and neither of them are Miranda Priestly."

"When did you drink the kool aid huh?" he snapped and she flinched slightly as the grip he had on her arm tightened, she should have kept better eye on how much he was drinking, "What did she have to do to earn your admiration? What was the price of your soul Andy?"

"Nate, let go of me," she said quietly, his grip only tightened and she knew there would be a bruise in the morning, "Nate."

"What did she give you for your loyalty or are you really as cheap as a single pair of shoes?" He'd pulled her in tighter, his deep definitely bruising and anger flashing in his eyes. Andrea was terrified, terrified that in this room full of important people who could make or break her someone would notice what was going on, terrified that they wouldn't, terrified he would see in her all too expressive eyes exactly what she and Miranda had had, "Oh, oh I see," Nate smirked and she knew she was caught, "So iy wasn't just your soul you sold? Come on, we're leaving."

"Is there a problem here?" no, no, no, Andrea thought, her face dropping so her hair covered her face she didn't have to meet the eyes of the woman who had somehow snuck up on them, the first and last person she wanted to be privy to this. She felt Nate's grip on her arm tighten even further as he pulled her behind him.

"Not at all," he said and Andrea could hear from his tone that he had pasted on a smile.

"Andrea?" there was more than a hint of concern in the usually firm voice and she allowed her eyes to meet familiar blue ones, shaking her head lightly. The older woman looked amazing, furious and amazing. "Nathanial is it? Would you be so kind as to give me five minutes with Andrea?"

"Anything you want to say to Andy you can say in front of me, she's not your assistant anymore lady." Andrea watched the older woman's eyes flash with furry and cowered slightly despite the fact she hadn't been on the receiving end of that look since she was an assistant, Nate was an idiot, a drunk idiot and maybe being chewed out by THE Miranda Priestly would knock him down a peg or two.

"Andrea, come with me please." The older woman said instead and although it was obvious that it wasn't a request the fact that Miranda held out a hand for her was completely out of character. Andrea, blessed with the clarity that she had been desperate for, for months, didn't hesitate, taking the outstretched hand and allowing herself to be led to the older woman's side.

"Oh so it's like that is it?" Nate snapped and Andrea met his eyes, wishing she hadn't when she saw the fury in them, but feeling Miranda's hand in hers gave her the strength she needed to face him without thinking, "You go with her now you don't even think about coming crawling back to me Andy."

"I actually think I can live with that," she said quietly, turning to Miranda with a tremulous smile and taking a deep breath,

"Come Andrea, Roy is waiting."

"Andy, Andy don't you dare walk away from me!" she didn't turn around, didn't react, she did what Miranda had taught her and held her head high, paid no one any mind even though on the inside she was shaking.

* * *

By the time they slid into the back of the waiting town car Andrea was visibly shaking and there were silent tears falling down her cheeks. She was barely aware of the car pulling away from the curb, only of Miranda's arm wrapping around her shoulder and pulling her into her side.

"It's ok Andrea, I've got you, you're ok." She murmured, running her hands soothingly up and down her bare arms, "You're ok, he can't hurt you, you're safe now ok, you're safe."

Andrea had no idea how long they drove around, only aware of the fact that it was far longer than it would have taken to get to either of their homes. Miranda never stopped murmuring comforting words and stroking her back and arms, occasionally brushing a kiss to the top of a brunette head and for the first time since they had been together last Andrea felt at peace and that alone gave her the answers that she had been craving for weeks.

Nate's violent streak never got any worse than a bruising hold and an equally bruising verbal battering and it happened rarely but every time it did she was terrified that it would be the time that he pushed further and she was convinced that that night, had Miranda not intervened, things would have gone much further. Each time it happened she knew she should end it, that she should walk away, but she did love Nate in her own way even if she wasn't in love with him. When things were good he was attentive and caring but she found herself waiting for the other shoe to drop and for the temper to return. She hadn't felt safe with Nate for a very long time but in the back of the town car with Miranda she felt safer than she ever had before.

"I'm sorry." She said quietly, trying to push herself upright, stopped by a gentle hand on her back urging her to stay where she was.

"You have nothing to apologise for darling." Miranda said quietly, brushing her fingers through the younger woman's hair

"I made a scene at an event, I dragged you away from the same event, I've also not given you any reason to be nice to me or help me." Andrea said quietly, pushing herself upright and turning so she could face Miranda fully for the first time. She was pleased to find herself face to face with the relaxed features of the woman she had come to know and not the Editor in Chief known to the rest of the world. She watched the other woman lean forward and rap her knuckles on the privacy screen before settling back into her seat and taking Andrea's hand.

"You didn't make a scene, that was all Nathanial. I watched you pull him away from the crowds and try to control the situation. I'm afraid that if either one of us caused a scene back there it was me."

"You were watching me?" for some reason Andrea's brain had stuck on that fact and disregarded the rest of the sentence.

"Of course I was, you look beautiful tonight Andrea and the last month hasn't changed how I feel for you." Miranda smiled sadly, "And I couldn't, wouldn't stand by and wait to see what he did next."

"I've missed you," Andrea said quietly, squeezing the hand that held hers and pulling it into her lap, "I kept trying to tell myself that I could make it work with Nate, that that's what I was supposed to do but..."

"Hush, not tonight." Miranda said gently as the car came to a stop and she heard Roy climbing out of the front seat to open Miranda's door, "Come in, let me look after you, we'll talk tomorrow, I promise."

* * *

Andrea woke slowly, stretching luxuriously under the sinfully soft sheets of Miranda's bed. She'd slept better that night than she had in weeks and she felt fully rested and ready to face whatever changes the goings on of the previous night threw at her. Cracking her eyes open she smiled when she found Miranda sat up beside her looking through the book.

"Morning," she said quietly, curling so her cheek was pressed against the other woman's hip,

"Morning darling," Miranda looked down at her with a smile, putting the book on the bedside table before wiggling down in the bed so they were face to face, "Did you sleep well?"

"Better than I have in a while, thank you." Andrea smiled, throwing her arm over the other woman's waist and pulling their bodies closer together, "Miranda?"

"Yes Andrea?"

"I love you." The smile that broke across the older woman's face was breath taking and Andrea could feel her own lips stretching into an equally wide smile,

"You love me?"

"I love you, I tried not to, I tried to ignore it and I thought I had until last night, but seeing you again, being near you again, made me realise that ignoring it wasn't making me happy, it was making me miserable, I don't want to be miserable any more Miranda."

"I love you Andrea," Miranda leant in and brushed their lips lightly together, "And I'll try to prevent you being miserable for as long as I live if you'll let me." the kiss they shared then was deep and loving, filled with all of the things they had been keeping bottled up for the last month, Andrea sank into the kiss, wrapping her arms around the other woman and finally she knew that she was home.


	11. Leaked

Just a little something I wrote during a quiet day at work, the prompt was Leaked

* * *

Andrea rolled over with a groan, the sound of someone trying, and almost succeeding by the sounds of it, to hammer down her front door pulling her to unhappy consciousness. Rolling out of bed she crossed the still dark room rubbing her eyes, she had no idea what time it was but she knew it was far too early to be woken, especially so rudely. It said something about the improved security of her new building that she didn't check who was there before opening the door but she immediately wished she had when she came face to face with an enraged Miranda Priestly.

"Miranda?" she asked sleepily, stepping backwards as the older woman stormed into the space slamming the door behind her, practically incandescent with rage and Andrea had no idea what she could have possibly done to cause it. "Miranda what..."

"Don't what me Andrea Sachs!" The older woman snapped and it was the closest Andrea had ever heard her to raising her voice. "You are the one who needs to start answering questions, starting with what the hell this is," she slammed the paper that had practically been balled in her fists onto the coffee table and stalked away from it, "Followed up with why the hell you haven't been answering your phone."

"My phone died on my way home last night, I guess I was so exhausted I forgot to put it on charge," Andrea sighed, it had really been more like earlier that morning but she got the feeling Miranda wouldn't care much about semantics. Rubbing her face she dropped down onto the sofa and flipped the paper on the coffee table over, the bottom dropping out of her stomach at the same time as the blood drained from her face, "Miranda I..."

"You what?" Miranda snapped and that time she did raise her voice, "You thought it would be a nice surprise? You only ever did this for the scoop? How much have they paid you for all of these photographs and messages hmm? And to think I actually thought that when you said you loved me you actually meant it!"

"Miranda I did, I do." Andrea said quietly, tears stinging at her eyes as she watched the older woman pace up and down, "Do you really think I would leak these pictures? Do you really think I would value any amount of money over what we have?"

"Well someone has leaked them and it certainly wasn't me, that only leaves you Andrea." Andrea could understand, from a logical point of view, why Miranda would believe that it was her that had leaked the photographs. The pictures plastered all over PageSix and God knew what other gossip magazines and blogs where ones she had taken after all and Miranda was the only other person with copies. It had taken a long time for Andrea to persuade the older woman to allow her to document their relationship with photographs. Miranda, understandably really, didn't like to have her picture taken and it had taken a lot of encouragement from Andrea to get her to do anything other than scowl every time she took one.

Casting her eyes over the paper she couldn't deny that the pictures that PageSix had printed were some of her favourites, the two of them in bed one morning, both sleep rumpled, both very obviously naked under the sheets, both smiling; Miranda from behind, sheet slung low across her bare back, sun from the window in front of her softening the whole image; the two of the squashed between the twin's grinning faces, Miranda in a sweater, Andrea in a hoody, their foreheads pressed together, grinning at each other. Folding the paper in half she pushed it away from herself, turning to watch Miranda continue pacing, kneeling on the couch she grabbed the older woman's wrist over the back and pulled her to a halt in front of her.

"Miranda look at me please." She said gently, waiting until Miranda gave her her eyes to continue, "I don't know how this happened darling but I promise you I didn't leak these pictures, I wouldn't, they are precious to me, to us, even if we were going public these wouldn't be the pictures I shared. Early morning sleep rumpled Miranda is mine, I don't want to share her with anyone else and surely you know I would never, ever use a picture of the girls." She watched some of the anger seep from the older woman's eyes but her shoulders remained tense and Andrea brushed her thumbs over her knuckles in an attempt to soothe her, "I swear to you Miranda, this wasn't me, you know that don't you?"

"I don't. I" Miranda stopped, closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "I don't understand how this has happened Andrea, these pictures, our emails, our texts, they are everywhere. The girls tell me we've broken the internet."

"Oh god, my mum and dad!"

"You should probably charge your phone now," Miranda suggested and although she still looked tense she offered a small smile and squeezed the brunette's hands in hers, "I'm sorry for coming in all guns blazing."

"I get it," Andrea allowed, pulling her closer and leaning up to press a kiss to her cheek, "But I hope you don't honestly believe that I would do this to you, to us."

"I do, I'm sorry," Miranda pressed her forehead against the younger woman's and smiled, brushing her fingers across the girls cheek, "I love you Andrea,"

"I love you too and hey, at least they published the good pictures," Miranda frowned and Andrea chuckled, kissing her lightly, "Too soon?" Andrea slid off the sofa and grabbed her work bag which still lay where she had dropped it when she had fallen through the door. Sticking her hand into the pocket where she kept her phone and wallet her eyes widened as her hand kept on going until her fingers came through the landing and out, "Oh shit," she muttered, dragging the rest of her things out of her bag and going through every inch of it for her phone, "shit, shit, shit."

"Andrea?"

"My phone Miranda, my phone and my wallet are gone," she turned to the other woman, her hand sticking out of the slashed lining of her bag, "It must have happened on the subway this morning." She dropped herself onto the sofa and fisted her hair in her hands, "explains where they came from," she said gesturing to the paper and looking up at Miranda who looked like she was heading towards furious again.

"Don't you have a passcode on that thing?" she snapped and Andrea reached over to run a soothing hand over her thigh,

"Of course I do, but people who can hack laptops can hack phones too, all they need is the right software and they can get through all my passcodes. They were probably after my money though, rather than my personal life."

"And even Page Six wouldn't ask about where they came from once they saw them," Miranda sighed and rubbed a hand over her face, "I should call Lesley."

"Can I use your phone to call my parents? Someone they know is bound to have seen something by now and they are going to be going nuts, if I had my phone they'd have blown it up."

"Speaking of which, while you are on to your parents I'll talk to the police too," Miranda rummaged in her bag and pulled out her work and personal cell phones, handing one to the younger woman, "This has gone well beyond petty theft and I plan to have the perpetrator thoroughly punished."

* * *

It was nearly two hours before they were able to regroup. Andrea's father was furious, her mother devastated, but neither for the reasons she assumed they would be. They had known for longer than even Andrea had that their daughter was bisexual so she knew that the fact she was with a woman wouldn't be the issue, no, she'd very much expected the issue to be who the other woman was; her status, her age, the fact that Andrea had bitched about her for six solid months when she had worked for her. But it turned out that, for her parents, none of those things were an issue, they both claimed that they had known that Andrea had more than a working interest in the editor and if she made their daughter happy then they were happy. For her parents, the issue came from the way the pair had been outed, her father was threatening to sue and her mother was just devastated that the choice had been taken from them and the pairs privacy had been so thoroughly breeched.

By the time she go off the phone, her parents telling her they would visit when things had calmed down a little and that she and Miranda made a beautiful couple, Miranda was on the phone to Lesley and Andrea was exhausted. Curling into the armchair she listened to Miranda speak and allowed her voice to soothe her. She didn't know how much later it was that she felt cool fingers on her cheek and she forced her eyes to open with a smile,

"Hey," she said quietly, "What did Lesley have to say?"

"Not important," Miranda said and she seemed to really mean it, she had calmed almost completely since she had arrived, "The girls are on their way, Emily is bringing you a new cell phone and before that happens I want to know what happened with your parents?" Andrea tugged the older woman up from the floor and into her lap, brushing her fingers through white hair.

"They are coming to visit when everything has calmed down a little," Andrea said, running her hands absently over any bit of the older woman she could reach, "Say we make a beautiful couple."

"They what?!" they had both been sure that they would meet at least some disapproval from Andrea's parents, Miranda sure that they would hate her, that they would give their daughter an ultimatum, neither of them expected immediate acceptance.

"Mhm, the only thing they are remotely upset about is the way we have been outed, Dad is threatening to sue."

"Tell him to save his money," Miranda chuckled, leaning up to press a kiss to the brunette's jaw, "Now why don't you go and get dressed? I thought we could take the girls out for a late breakfast/ early luch."

"Really?" Andrea quirked an eyebrow, she'd been expecting a statement claiming the photos were faked, silence even, but definitely not lunch.

"If you are comfortable with that? It may not have happened the way we wanted it to but the world knows now. I'm tired of hiding, aren't you?" Andrea grinned and pulled Miranda into a deep kiss, her fingers threading through her hair as she pulled back.

"God I love you Miranda Priestly, lets go show the world how amazing we are together."


End file.
